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THE RESULTS OF the Seanad by-election are set to be announced later today, confirming two more Senators in the upper house.
The two members are being elected to the Seanad’s Agricultural Panel and the Industrial and Commercial Panel, meaning only current TDs and Senators are eligible to vote.
The electorate in the by-elections is 218 TDs and Senators, with the votes taking place by proportional representation with a single transferrable vote.
A total of seven candidates are nominated across the two panels, with one candidate to be elected to each.
The TDs and Senators voting can therefore choose the candidates in order of their preference on each panel.
Ballot papers were issued to members two weeks ago and polls close at 11am today.
The counting begins immediately and will be livestreamed by the Oireachtas, which will also share results online. The results may be known before lunchtime.
Agricultural Panel
Industrial and Commercial Panel
Government parties Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have nominated one candidate to each panel and the parties have a voting pact to support each other’s candidate, former senators Horkan (FF) and Byrne (FG)
Combined, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael representatives make up over half (110) of the electorate.
Green Party leader Minister Eamon Ryan had also stated that his party would be adhering to a government pact and supporting the FF and FG candidates but the Green Party’s chairperson and Dublin Lord Mayor Hazel Chu announced that she would be running.
Chu secured the requisite nominations to be included on the ballot and said she would be running as an independent.
Candidates for the Seanad are not listed by their party affiliation in any event but are likely to draw their support from fellow party members.
Chu did not receive official backing from her party to run in the by-election but deputy leader and Cabinet minister Catherine Martin was among those who nominated her.
The Labour Party has nominated a candidate on each panel, Kildare councillor Angela Feeney and employment solicitor and former Dublin South West general election candidate Ciarán Ahern.
Sinn Féin has not nominated any candidates but its TDs and Senators have thrown their weight behind former independent senators Ian Marshall and Billy Lawless.
Marshall is a unionist and former president of the Ulster Farmers’ Union with Sinn Féin arguing that his nomination was “an opportunity for unionist inclusion” in the Seanad.
The party’s decision to support Marshall and Lawless could be seen as a blow to the Labour candidates and Chu who were likely relying on votes from outside the government parties to be elected.
The two Seanad elections were required following the resignations of Fine Gael’s Michael D’Arcy and Sinn Féin’s Elisha McCallion.
D’Arcy resigned to take up a job as chief executive of the Irish Association of Investment Managers while McCallion resigned following a controversy over Covid-19 grant money received by her party’s office in Northern Ireland.
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FFG sharing the spoils, very well put headline, it’s doing what they do best.
God almighty this is just a rotten system in plain sight….
System is rotten too the core, both house’s of Parliament should have member’s voted in by the people. About time for a Constitutional change how Senators are elected. Taking it away from the Government of the day, and the main universities making it a Democratic election by the people mot the elite.
@Mick McGuinness: parliament? Better read your constitution again.
Too much cronyism. Why is it that all other countries have an upper house to oversee the politicians and we have an under house so failed and wannabe politicians have a second chance/ second income. Its so wrong at many levels.
Seanad system stinks, where is reform we voted for?
@John Flood: People had a chance to vote it out, kept it just to stick it to Enda Kenny.
@Thomas O’ Donnell: people voted to reform the senate, but typically of FF/FG as usual nothing will change,
@John Flood: FG wanted to abolish it and held a referendum which was defeated even with the support of the shinners but FF canvassed to retain it
@Christybhoy67: no they didn’t. Referendum was not passed.
Why don’t they just merge and be done with it. They’ve had a pact since 2016. That’s not parliamentary politics – it’s corruption.
This little FG piggy went to the senate, this other FF piggy went to the senate…and together these two piggys got lovely and fat financially eating out of the taxpayer gravy filled trough of the senate and squealed and laughed with delight with all the other greedy piggys who got into this senate….moral of the story kids, you don’t even need to be decent at being a politician to make it into the money filled piggy bank pens of Irish politics where its lashing of pay, perks and pensions with very little needed in return
Is Chu not running as an ‘Independent’?
Never even heard of any of these candidates before. They Must have been waiting in the wings for cosy numbers to come up. Are they related to anyone we know?
Just abolish the Senate,it is a toothless, pointless elitist institution that serves no purpose other than to keep politicians of all ilks on the gravy train.
What happens if the Frontrunners loose A General Election l guess
Why didn’t Sinn Fein not nominate anyone?
@Bleurgh: Sinn Fein did nominate & are backing unionist Ian Marshall as an Independent candidate, but don’t let facts get in your way ,
U should check before posting ,
@Christybhoy67: there is a difference between backing a candidate from another party, and nominating a sitting td in their own party. I read the article, my question why not have a Sinn Fein candidate?
@Christybhoy67: there is a difference between backing a candidate from another party, and nominating a sitting td in their own party. I read the article, my question why not have a Sinn Fein candidate? Hi
@Bleurgh: you are right SF did not nominate
Maria Byrne is a former Limerick city Mayor from the City ,why is she being selected for the agricultural seat ?..for some allotments on Kings Island ? Wouldn’t know the difference between a Silage wrap and a chicken one .At least select someone from an agricultural background
Everybody should have 1 vote for the Dáil and 1 for the Seanad. For the Dáil you vote for your regional representative. For the Seanad you vote for your ‘sectoral’ representative. There would be 2 representatives elected from each of 25 sectors (Farming, Health, Education, SME, Banking and Finance, Sport, Tourism, etc., etc.) and you register beforehand which sector you wish to vote in. That’s the way the Seanad was initially envisaged but it somehow got lost along the way.
They are not going to be ‘elected’ – they are going to be ‘appointed’ to a 70,000eur a year job paid for by the taxpayer.
The fact that the Seanad has not been democratised or reformed since the referendum to keep it, is a spit in the face to the Irish electorate.
The raison d’être of every political party from far left to far right is to achieve office and wield power so why does this come as a surprise to people? Rest assured that if any of the other parties had the numbers, they would be doing exactly the same.
The ‘panels’ that vote for many members of the Senate were in the 1930s a pseudo gesture to the church teaching on ‘vocationalism’ that encyclical writers thought would strengthen democracy in class stratified societies. If we want vocational representation in the Senate (and the Dail) in order to make these institutions representative of a cross section of contemporary society, it is up to parties to select candidates from different professions. The List system used in France and Germany sometimes enables individuals with special talents and experiences to be elected to the National Assembly or the Bundestag. After an election the new Taoiseach can nominate 11 members of the new Senate. On a few occasions distinguished individuals from Northern Ireland were thereby nominated to the Senate.
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