Will it be Joan Freeman of Pieta House, who voted no in the referendum on the Eighth Amendment, but who voted yes in the marriage equality one?

Or will Sinn Féin, in the form of Liadh Ní Riada, be taking up residence in Phoenix Park until 2025?

It could also be either Seán Gallagher or Gavin Duffy, the reality TV stars you might remember from Dragons’ Den.

Either way, it’s a presidential race of six candidates that has seemed pointless at times and damaging at others.

People in Ireland are very busy. Unemployment is now at 6%. In the past year alone, the number of unemployed people dropped by 10%. Our population is growing too, in almost every county in Ireland; there are double the amount of births to deaths, if not higher.

In Cork, for example, in 2017, there were 5,472 births to 2,624 deaths. In Cork the average age is 37-and-a-half. In South Dublin, in 2017, there were 4,000 births to 1,278 deaths and the average age is 36.8.

All of this points to busy people, busy people who are running households, having babies, holding down jobs, minding children, and taking care of ageing parents.

If you fit in to this busy category, let me ask, between school runs, correcting homework, saving for Christmas and batch-cooking a week’s supply of spaghetti bolognese, have you had time to engage in the presidential election debate? Aside from Michael D Higgins, can you name the other five candidates?

If you can hazard a guess as to one or two of their names, do you know anything about their ideological or business backgrounds? Who they have worked for in the past and who gave them money to fund their campaign? This is not a test, this is an exercise to see how busy, preoccupied, and otherwise engaged you are.

Most people I talk to see the next president of Ireland as a foregone conclusion and have totally disengaged from the debate. In this sense the race has been pointless. But in terms of democracy, and giving the public a vote on whether Higgins deserves another term or if he should be replaced, the campaign has been important.

But it has also been damaging.

Headlines have been chock-a-block with insults and slurs, falsehoods, and low-blows. In a country known for

having a tolerant disposition, the campaign trail and its TV debates have let us down as a nation.

We won’t rehash them here to prevent further oxygenation, save for one — the lie about who pays for Higgins’ dogs to be groomed. Peter Casey, one of the other five candidates, the one who talks about money, a lot, said the following to Higgins: “Your rent [in Áras an Uachtaráin, where every president lives] is paid, your driver’s paid, everything is paid for. Your food’s paid for, your nice suits are paid for. What do you spend your money on? Why do you need €250,000? Even your dog-grooming bills are paid for.”

A spokesman responding on behalf of Higgins described the dog-grooming claims as “false and ludicrous”.

Adding that “all the costs of the dogs’ upkeep are met from the President’s own funds”.

In a country with 10,000 people living in emergency accommodation and way behind our climate change goals, it is beyond embarrassing that the debate has come to this. No wonder all the busy people with their jobs and children and ageing parents have switched off.

But a more serious note on Higgins’ Bernese mountain dogs Bród and Síoda. During the summer, several hundred women, who had spent time in industrial schools and Magdalene laundries, attended an event in the Áras, where they were given an apology by the President on behalf of the people.

During the speech, one of the women became visibly upset and left the marquee to be alone on a bench outside. When you looked out the window, all you saw was the elderly lady sitting alone, being consoled by the two dogs at her feet. Pets and animals might not be important to some, but to others, they’re fundamental to their wellbeing.

Moving on, the difference between this presidential election and the last in 2011 is that there was no incumbent then. Mary McAleese was leaving office after two terms and was not allowed stay for another. So we were voting on a brand new president and we elected Michael D Higgins.

Seven years later, he is allowed to run for a second term, which he has pursued. If no one else had decided to run, he would have gone uncontested and we would not be having a vote next Friday.

However, lots of people came out of the woodwork and five received enough political backing to get their name on your ballot paper.

Their names again, in alphabetical order are: Peter Casey (reality TV star and businessman), Gavin Duffy (reality TV star and businessman), Joan Freeman (founder of Pieta House), Seán Gallagher (reality TV star and businessman), and Liadh Ní Riada (a member of the European Parliament for Sinn Féin).

There is also another difference between 2011 and 2018 — insults and slurs have become accepted practice in political discourse and public conversation. With Donald Trump in the White House, his combative style of engagement has emboldened many, but it is not particularly becoming of the Irish temperament.

One last thing, and this is said in spite of the adage that what goes on tour stays on tour. In 2013 Higgins visited Mexico, Costa Rica, and El Salvador with diplomats from our Department of Foreign Affairs. Several important trade and bilateral agreements were signed and key human rights issued were raised. Unfortunately a bug, gastrointestinal in nature, made its way around the Irish delegation, with journalists and aides alike being struck down. However, there was one person whose constitution was such that he never caught the bug. By this day next week, he could still be your president.