Ireland's president an example for New Zealand

MEDIA RELEASE: 26 October 2007

"New Zealand's republican movement extends warm greetings to the Irish
President Mary McAleese on her visit to New Zealand. During her stay from
October 28 to November 3, we implore New Zealanders to look closely at her
stature and see how a parliamentary president can be a respected and unifying
head of state as well as a true representative of the people" said Lewis
Holden, chair of the Republican Movement of Aotearoa New Zealand.

Supporters of the monarchy often argue there is no viable replacement for the
Sovereign and Governor-General. The Irish model is a precedent-setting formula
that shows reform for the better is possible: Ireland once had the British
monarch as head of state, and reformed their Governor-General with a
democratically elected presidency in 1938, retaining the King for a period,
then making the President a full head of state in 1949. They retained a prime
minister as head of government. Since then, the Republic of Ireland has
blossomed as a prosperous independent nation, respected throughout the world as
an example of stability, pluralism and democracy.

"Unlike the President of Ireland, New Zealand's head of state, Queen Elizabeth
II, almost always represents only Britain when she travels abroad - although the
role of New Zealand's Governor-General has taken on ceremonial presidential
characteristics, constitutionally, he or she is still the representative of the
Queen, not the people of New Zealand. I'm sure if Kiwis take a hard look at the
Irish system, they'll see that ours just doesn't stack up" concluded Mr Holden.

A factsheet on the Republic of Ireland and the Irish Presidency can be found
here:

www.republic.org.nz/documents/ireland_factsheet.pdf [1]

Further information on the constitutional make-up of Ireland can be found here:
www.republic.org.nz/republicmodels#ireland [2]

ENDS

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