If elected to serve as Ireland's president, can MMA fighter Conor McGregor force legislators to convene and face questioning about their policies? No, that's not true: Ireland's Constitution does not grant such powers to any president. A professor of Ireland's constitutional law told Lead Stories McGregor's tweet claiming these powers was "constitutionally illiterate."
The incorrect assertion about presidential powers in Ireland originated from a post (archived here) on McGregor's account on X, formerly known as Twitter, on September 5, 2024. The post said:
As President I hold the power to summon the Dáil as well as dissolve it. So as i said before, I would have all the answers the people of Ireland seek from these thieves of the working man, these disrupters of the family unit, these destructors of small businesses, and on and on and on! These charlatans in their positions of power would be summoned to answer to the people of Ireland and I would have it done by day end. Or I would be left with no choice but to dissolve the Dáil entirely. Stop the train until. The people of Ireland deserve the answers they seek. Point blank. This would be my power as President. I know very well. Ireland needs an active President employed wholly by the people of Ireland. It is me. I am the only logical choice. 2025 is upcoming...
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of the writing of this fact check:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Fri Sep 6 14:00:59 2024 UTC)
McGregor is an Irish mixed martial arts fighter (archived here) known for multiple controversies, including his statements on social media (archived here). McGregor first expressed his desire to run for president in December 2023 (archived here).
The post that is the focus of this fact check did not offer an accurate description of the president's job in Ireland.
As defined by Ireland's Constitution (archived here), the president is the head of the state, not the head of government. The role of head of state comes with limited powers.
A professor of constitutional law at Ireland's University College Cork, Conor O'Mahony (archived here), told Lead Stories via LinkedIn messaging on September 6, 2024, that:
The power to summon and dissolve the Dáil (the Irish parliament) can only be exercised by the President 'on the advice of the Taoiseach' (Irish Prime Minister), as per Article 13.2.1 of the Irish Constitution. In other words, the President has to do what s/he is told in this respect, and has a purely ceremonial role in the summoning and dissolution of the Dáil.
McGregor seeks to create the impression that he could hold Government and Parliament to account or keep them in line, when in fact the Irish President has no such power to do so. His tweet is constitutionally illiterate.
O'Mahony published a detailed analysis of the presidential role here (archived here).
The website of Ireland's parliament (archived here) does not list the president among the government ministers or lawmakers who can propose bills.
The president has no power to veto bills, though does sign them into law. The only other power related to policies that Ireland's presidents have is to send bills for review to the Supreme Court, which will decide if a piece of legislation or part of it violates the Constitution. That is not the same as initiating policies, and even the judicial review comes with a limitation: Article 26 of the Constitution states that the president may refer bills to the Supreme Court "after consultation with the Council of State."
Ireland's current president, Michael Higgins (archived here), was re-elected in October 2018. Irish heads of state can serve only two seven-year terms.
Under the constitution, to secure their names on the ballot for Ireland's 2025 presidential election, nonincumbents have to secure a nomination by 20 members of parliament or by the governing councils of "not less than four" of Ireland's admnistrative counties.
As of this writing, a search for the keywords seen here (archived here) on the website of Ireland's parliament produced no results confirming that McGregor has secured such a nomination. A search on Google, visible here (archived here), also produced no results to suggest he has received the nomination of four of Ireland's administrative counties.
Other Lead Stories fact checks of claims about Ireland can be found here.
