Eoghan Moloney

‘I know how to handle a crisis,’ Humphreys says as she wants to be ‘voice for the people’

Heather Humphreys said she would prefer to be called the most “experienced” rather than the most “establishment” candidate in the Irish presidential race.The Fine Gael candidate said she was a business minister during Brexit and the pandemic, adding: “I know how to handle a crisis.”She said that as culture minister during 100-year commemoration of the 1916 Rising, she led events that “really brought people together, and they gave us a great sense of national identity and pride”.Asked if she was the most establishment candidate, she told RTÉ Radio: “Some people might say establishment, I would say experienced.“I’d ask people to judge me on my track record in the ministries that I have held. And yes, I’m not denying of course there are challenges, and in government there will always be challenges, and there’s always more to be done.“But I did have the courage to step up and go into government, and some didn’t.”Asked about how she would speak about the housing crisis given her party’s role in government, she said: “Yes, I will be a voice for all the people, but I’m realistic.“I realise what the president can do: The president can highlight, the president can speak, they can they can be a voice for the nation.“They can speak out when they see injustices and they can speak out, like the President (Michael D Higgins) has done in terms of Gaza and what has happened there. I have never been afraid to speak up for people.” Gráinne Ní Aodha, PA