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10th July 2018
10:28am BST
It has been seven years since Michael D Higgins saw off competition from Sean Gallagher and Martin McGuinness to become Ireland President.
And Higgins has confirmed that he will seek a second term.
In a short statement, the President said 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 this year.
"The Government has been informed".
CONFIRMED: Michael D Higgins will seek a second term as @PresidentIRL pic.twitter.com/kdHi4sCnvn
— Gavan Reilly (@gavreilly) July 10, 2018
He is currently in Mayo at the moment but will be speaking in depth about the decision later on Tuesday afternoon.
On the fourth count of the 2011 election, Higgins was elected by a massive 1,007,104 votes to Sean Gallagher's 628,114.
Higgins also had almost 40% of the first preference votes in the election and won overall by a majority of 56.8% to Gallagher's 35.5%.
