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MICHAEL D HIGGINS has confirmed he will seek a second term in the Áras, as had been widely expected.
The President said on the night of his election in 2011 that he did not intend to seek a second term, but his position has shifted in recent years.
He had said he would address the issue “in the fullness of time”. Last autumn he said he would make his intentions clear by September 2018, but in recent weeks it was made clear he would declare his intentions at some stage this month.
A statement issued today says:
“President Michael D. Higgins wishes to confirm that he will be offering himself as an independent candidate, under Article 12.4.4 of Bunreacht na hÉireann, when the Ministerial Order for a Presidential Election is made later in the year.
“The Government has been informed of this decision.
“The President’s programme of official duties and engagements continues.”
President Higgins made no mention of his announcement upon his arrival for his latest engagement this afternoon.
He and Sabina Higgins were visiting the Hope House Addiction Treatment Centre in Foxford, Co Mayo.
The couple were greeted upon arrival and congratulated on the announcement. The President smiled and nodded in response, but didn’t offer any further reaction.
Previously, Micheál Martin said that the Fianna Fáil party “from top to bottom” would support a second term for Michael D Higgins.
Speaking to reporters today, Martin said Higgins had been a strong president, “he has been engaging, and he has represented the country abroad with distinction”.
“He has reached out to communities across this country, particularly to young people, and in that instance I believe he is worthy of reelection and that is why we don’t have a hesitation in supporting him and endorsing him for a second term.”
A decision on whether Sinn Féin will contest the presidential election, which would be held in October, will be made at the party’s Ard Comhairle on Saturday.
Fine Gael is yet to make an official decision, but Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has indicated he’s likely to back Higgins for a second term. The issue will be discussed at the weekly Fine Gael parliamentary party meeting tomorrow.
A candidate needs the support of 20 Oireachtas members or four local authorities to get on the ballot. So far, independent senator Gerard Craughwell is the most high-profile likely opponent for Higgins.
“I don’t believe anyone is unbeatable, including the incumbent,” he said today – although he admitted it would be a difficult contest to win.
- With reporting by Paul Hosford
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Any ransomware I’ve ever seen if it corrupts your files they are gone for good pay or not
It doesn’t corrupt files. It encrypts them. There have been cases where people/companies do pay the ransom and do get their files unencrypted. However it’s a big risk as there is no guarantee and it just encourages these people to keep doing what they are doing
Yes, but easily defeated by taking regular backups. You may loose some data but the majority will be safe and it’s something people should be doing anyway.
Yep that is the best defense.
Backups are only useful if they are made to something that is NOT connected at the time of encryption … otherwise your backup gets encrypted too! :(
Back up your most important data externally.
It is the safest way and the least troublesome way.
Stick with using a good cloud service which gives centralised file distrbution as well as backup.
Dropbox for example will not synchronise with an encrypted file due to lack of rights.
Also, all files can be returned to a previous version if the worst were to happen.
That’s not true David. Once your local hard drive is encrypted, which includes your dropbox files, they wull be uploaded to dropbox.
You will then need to download them all from dropbox or any file sync service from a backup.
Reuben, Try it. Encrypt a file inside a DB folder and watch the process be refused access. It is a constant problem for me when users place encrypted files they have received from external sources into server based DB folders. The DB process will not upload them because of no rights. We then can never get the status ‘Up to Date’.
Poor Mac users – first they’re douchebags, and now this!?
No harm to you Alex, but I hope you update your anti-virus software more often that your insults. Douchebag is so last year.
However, if you are still in your pre-pubescent years and spend your days watching iCarly, then all is forgiven.
Forgot to mention, sent from my iPhone, so I guess I’m a douchebag, which is sooooo Rad!
Bit sad seeing grown adults doing the “My gang is better than your gang” stance over a computer.
VHS will beat Betamax!!
Wtf is iCarly
An iPhone is not a Mac, John. You’re confused.
FRB, no fooling you, eh? I thought the hatred was for anything Apple, not just Macs….only Windows-based stuff is “proper” computery kit.
Way to spot a joke, guys.
I wonder if you can restore your computer to an earlier time or if you’re prevented from doing that as well. I doubt you’d be able to do it the regular way, but booting from a recovery disk you might be able to. I better start backing up my files more often either way
Create a single backup and then do incremental backups when you make changes that you want to keep (or schedule em)
Google Apple Machine – it’s on every Mac for a good few years now. If your disc dies or gets encrypted by malware, you can restore everything.
Which operating system are you looking to recover…??
@Fake Avast: Time Machine works locally, to a USB disc on your LAN, or connected directly to your Mac, so no internet need for daily backups. Restoring the whole system involves downloading the system again from Apple, so you would need good internet for a few hours – if the worst happened, you could bring your Mac and backup disc to a mate’s house to reload…
As long as you’re regularly running time machine backups, then if the worst happens you can boot and restore from a time machine backup. By default though this shouldn’t affect many Mac users as the “security & privacy” settings in “system preferences” are set to allow only apps from the “Mac AppStore” and not “anywhere”. So unless you’ve changed this setting you should be ok. If you have, then ebb on the side of caution and common sense when being prompted to download software from an untrustworthy source.
So in short as long as I don’t install pirate software on my MAC I’m still OK!
I think it’s all starting to go pear shaped for Apple. A brutal start to the new year.
Yes Eugene, one of the most profitable companies in the world is going to go pear shaped because of what exactly? I don’t think so.
have your say