Hillery the Younger is seeking election to the Seanad from the National University of Ireland (NUI) panel as an independent candidate but with strong endorsement from Fianna F�il, including Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and T�naiste Brian Cowen.

As president of the Medical Council for the past three years, the consultant psychiatrist is no stranger to the public eye. But he believes the Seanad will give him the ideal platform to continue his work of the past 20 years in promoting the needs of those with intellectual disabilities, along with his other areas of interest in health and child protection.

He laughs when it is put to him that he is already being talked about as a future presidential candidate. "I haven't heard that one, " he says, adding that "being in the Seanad would be great" and he will concentrate on that.

John Hillery had just left school when his father became president and, as a medical student, he lived in the �ras - an interesting address when college friends were calling. Later he, his wife Carolyn and their children moved back in to be with his parents when his sister Vivienne sadly passed away after a long illness in 1985.

Recalling his time living in the �ras, Hillery says it was "a great privilege to be there in those surroundings", particularly when you didn't have to deal with the pressures of being president. His mother Maeve was quick to ensure that her family remained grounded, he says. On his first morning there, he breakfasted in the big dining room using the best china but, after that, it was down in the back room "getting my own cereal."

Hillery says he has always been a supporter of, and sympathetic to, Fianna F�il - although he never actually joined - but feels being independent gives him greater freedom. "You can speak out on issues on which you mightn't agree with the main party, " he says.