Sir, – Jim Gavin’s resignation as a candidate for the presidency shows the need for a political party to have some method of selecting an alternative candidate, if the initial candidate withdraws after the standard nomination process had ended.

What, for instance, would we do if Fine Gael’s Mairead McGuinness had been the party’s nominee and her health concerns developed after she was selected?

We would be dealing with a scenario of two major candidates leaving the race, and two major parties being unrepresented in the contest. The political establishment has seven years to work out a solution. – Yours, etc.

DAN DONOVAN,

Dungarvan,

Co Waterford.

Sir, – The Fianna Fáil nomination process for the presidency has exposed something more troubling than poor internal management – a failure to grasp the immense responsibility placed on elected representatives when exercising such a mandate.

Selecting a potential president is not a party convenience; it is a constitutional act that demands integrity, discernment, and independence of mind. Many members are left wondering how so obvious a misjudgment could have occurred.

Did political calculation, or a desire to exclude certain figures, outweigh the duty to identify the most suitable candidate for this high office?

The presidency demands the highest standards of discernment and character. For Fianna Fáil’s representatives, this should have been an opportunity to reaffirm those values, not to diminish them through internal manoeuvre or haste. – Yours, etc.

DARAGH O’SULLIVAN,

Glasthule,

Dublin.

Sir, – Jim Gavin did not commit a crime. What seems to have happened is that he made a mistake or forgot about a situation, a civil matter.

There is no evidence of malicious or selfishness. Hands up who has not made a mistake?

Are we such a nation that we cannot tolerate a person who may have made an error 16 years ago.