Mr Derek Nally's attempt to get a nomination for the presidential race received a major boost yesterday when Clare County Council gave him its vote. He needs the nominations of three more councils to become the only male candidate.
Eight councils are meeting on Monday, and Mr Nally will canvass as many of these as possible.
"Some people took a very courageous decision and I acknowledge that," he told The Irish Times after the Clare meeting. "It was very important and they could have funked it, but they didn't."
Asked about his chances with the eight council meetings on Monday, Mr Nally said he would try to get around as many of them as possible to present his case and ask them for their nominations.
"How I am going to do it, I'm not sure. I'll just do my best. I hope those I can't attend will understand my position and give me their vote."
He hopes to attend the meetings of Cork, Wexford, South Dublin and Louth councils. "It will be very tight to reach all those. People must appreciate we can't break the speed limit."
At the special meeting of Clare County Council yesterday councillors from the two major parties, Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, abstained, thereby enabling seven councillors to constitute a majority and formally nominate Mr Nally.
Asked whether the main parties exercised the whip, Mr Nally said: "Fianna Fail told us they were abstaining and afterwards I was speaking to them and they said there was no whip. Fine Gael said there was a whip and that they were abstaining. I don't know what is going on."
Asked about his prospects of getting the votes of three more councils on Monday, he said: "I think there is no way anyone can impose a whip after this. They will be telling them not to vote for me, but they can't tell them to vote against me. Councillors will only reply, `Look at Clare.' "
The delighted founder of Victim Support said he now believed he had a good chance of getting onto the presidential ticket, "and then the really difficult problems begin."
Has he an election campaign organised? "No, organising a campaign when I hadn't got a nomination would have been tempting fate. It could have all gone down the tube. We will have to work on it now. We hope to get another three councils' votes."
He accepts that he is at a disadvantage compared with the other candidates, having lost so much time and energy seeking nominations from councils. But he says he is getting a lot of support from the public.
"They are saying that if I get a nomination they will support me. They believe in what I have done over the years. But the size of that type of support is difficult to gauge."
He told The Irish Times he had explained to the Clare councillors that he was not asking them to vote for him in the election, but just to support him for a nomination.
"They could send out a clear signal that democracy is alive and well. I fully appreciate that many of them are party people and they have a candidate of their own. I have no problem with that."