DANA ROSEMARY SCALLON is meeting with her legal team today amid doubts about the future of her presidential campaign.
Scallon’s statement on last night’s Prime Time debate with regard to unknown allegations against a member of her family which she described as “of a most untrue, malicious and vile nature” has generated speculation as to just what the allegations are about but also regarding the future of her campaign.
The allegations were levelled against a family member yesterday but the details of this are not known.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland this morning political correspondent David McCullagh indicated that a number of newspapers were aware of the allegations but it appears the threat of legal action may have stopped them from reporting them.
A spokesperson for Scallon said that there would be no further comment on the matter at this stage but did say: “Dana is currently meeting with her legal team today regarding the untrue allegations levelled against a family member yesterday”
Watch Dana’s statement in full:
It is understood the former MEP’s meetings with her lawyers have dominated her time today.
No public events have been taking place and as yet, no public events have been scheduled for tomorrow leading to increasing speculation that Scallon may withdraw from the race.
Whilst she could conceivably no longer contest the election, Scallon would still appear on the ballot paper on 27 October, a Department of Environment spokesperson confirmed today.
Asked directly on last night’s Prime Time whether she would consider withdrawing she answered “I will certainly…” before trailing off mid-sentence.
She continued by saying:
You know I don’t believe that you should ever give in to malicious intent, never. And I do feel that I did say that I would withdraw if there was more difficulty exposing my family. But I think that perhaps that’s the reason that this has been put forward.
Earlier this week, Scallon threatened to withdraw from the presidential race if she continued to be questioned about her family.
It follows the emergence of details of a dispute with her family where her sister testified in a 2008 court case that the former Eurovision winner had not informed the electorate of her dual US-Irish citizenship when she first ran for president in 1997.
Scallon denies this claim and has produced documentation which says she received US citizenship in 1999.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say