Counting Continues in Seanad Elections as Three Vocational Panels Are Filled
Counting in the Seanad elections progresses with three vocational panels now filled
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Dublin: The counting for the Seanad elections is moving along. The 11 seats on the agricultural and labour panels are filled. The cultural and educational panel also has its five seats filled.
Counting at Leinster House is now focused on the industrial and commercial panel. By late Sunday, five candidates were confirmed elected. They include independent Sharon Keogan and Fianna Fail’s Aidan Davitt and Mary Fitzpatrick.
Fine Gael’s Garrett Kelleher and Linda Nelson Murray also secured their spots. Sinn Fein’s Conor Murphy is a strong candidate for one of the remaining four seats. However, former Fine Gael TD Alan Farrell did not win a seat.
The last vocational panel to be counted will be the administrative one. A total of 111 candidates are competing for 43 seats across the vocational panels.
Counting for the six seats on the Seanad’s two university panels is already done. Entrepreneur Aubrey McCarthy won the final seat in the Trinity College Dublin constituency after a recount requested by Hazel Chu from the Green Party.
Returning independent senators Lynn Ruane and Tom Clonan took the other two seats in Trinity. Former children’s minister Katherine Zappone was among those who did not win a seat.
On the National University of Ireland (NUI) panel, incumbents Michael McDowell, Ronan Mullen, and Alice Mary Higgins were re-elected. The cultural and educational panel saw five new members elected, including Sinn Fein’s Pauline Tully.
Outgoing Fianna Fail senator Lorraine Clifford-Lee and former TD Joe Flaherty did not get re-elected. The agricultural panel elected several candidates, including Malcolm Noonan from the Greens and various members from Fianna Fail and Fine Gael.
On the labour panel, former Sinn Fein TD Chris Andrews and others secured seats. However, Anne Rabbitte, a former junior government minister, missed out.
Most of the public cannot vote in the Seanad elections. The electorate consists of TDs, outgoing senators, and local authority councillors. Graduates from NUI institutions and Trinity College Dublin vote for the university panel seats.
The final 11 Seanad seats will be appointed by Taoiseach Micheal Martin. Senators will debate and amend legislation proposed by the Government, but they cannot stop a Bill from becoming law.