2011 Irish presidential election "foisted on him and he had not known anything about it and what it would involve". This followed unease among Fianna Fáil parliamentary party Oireachtas members, with a number unhappy that a candidate was being imposed by the leadership without discussion. On 16 August 2011, the "Irish Examiner" reported that Micheál Martin had moved to pull the party out of the presidential race over the fallout from the approach to Gay Byrne, the cost involved and the slim chance of a candidate being elected. On 24 August, however, the party's deputy leader Éamon Ó Cuív told Raidió na Gaeltachta that
2011 Irish presidential election Minister, and current Labour Party president, originally indicated that he was interested in receiving the party's nomination in September 2010. Like Higgins, two other candidates put their names forward in late May 2011: For the first time in any presidential election, Fianna Fáil neither ran a candidate nor supported the nomination of a candidate. The decision was made at a meeting of the parliamentary party on 31 August 2011, and was in line with the recommendations of the six-person subcommittee formed by the party leader Micheál Martin to consider the matter. In June 2011 press reports had indicated that the