Galway Bay fm newsroom - Independent Senator and Galway city native Gerard Craughwell has pulled out of the race to be President due to the substantial costs involved in running a campaign.
Over the last year Senator Craughwell, who grew up in Salthill, had been the main agitator in favour of having a contest.
He said that he feared people would be denied their say in an election with the main parties backing the incumbent Michael D Higgins.
He feels a system that would allow the presidency to be rolled over for another seven years was profoundly undemocratic.
Senator Craughwell said he put himself forward as a candidate to make sure there would be a race, and today he said he's happy now to have achieved that.
However, he told Keith Finnegan that the main reason for his withdrawal is that he doesn't want to go into debt at the age of 65 in order to run a campaign.
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