The Green Party has denied the report.
The Green Party has issued a statement denying media reports that they had chosen junior counsel Roderick Maguire as their candidate for the Attorney General, as part of coalition negotiations.
A report in the Sunday Times (24 May) claimed that “the lawyer named as the Greens’ likely candidate for for Attorney General is Roderick Maguire,” who had been part of the election campaign team for Councillor David Healy, of the Green Party.
The news caused a furore on social media, where it was noted that Maguire had signed a letter in support of the Save the Eighth campaign, which advocated for a ‘No’ vote in Ireland’s 2018 referendum on reproductive rights.
After denials by individual TDs on Twitter, the party has now issued a denial, which reads: “The Green Party would like to clarify that no names have been put forward by the party for the role of Attorney General in any potential coalition government.
“The party has not discussed possible appointments either internally or with other parties at any level.”
On Twitter, Green TD Neasa Hourigan had written: “With the greatest respect to this member I have never heard his name, appointments are decided by the leaders not the core negotiating team.
“The Attorney General is an incredibly important role, as an active repeal campaigner this would not be an acceptable appointment to me.”
Maguire was among 200 legal professionals who signed the letter, including Aindrias Ó Caoimh, Senior Counsel, Former Judge of the High Court of Ireland and former Judge of the European Court of Justice; and Iarfhlaith O Neill, Senior Counsel, Former Judge of the High Court of Ireland and Chairman of the Referendum Commission on the Lisbon Treaty.
The letter argued that “it would be profoundly unjust to withdraw the existing constitutional protections from the unborn child or to give Government the power that they seek to legislate in this area.”
Maguire was also a signatory of a letter published in the Irish Times, which put forth the argument that: “We are not being asked to vote for abortion in certain limited cases, we are clearly being asked to remove all constitutional rights from unborn humans.”
As things stand, the Greens remain locked in coalition talks with Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, and are also heading towards a leadership election, in which Deputy Leader Catherine Martin has been nominated to challenge the party leader Eamon Ryan.
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