The Fine Gael national executive council is set to ratify a swathe of new candidates for Seanad Éireann panels, with the party aiming to target constituencies where a second or third seat could be won in future general elections.
A Seanad election to fill 60 seats is ongoing. Incoming TDs (160), outgoing Senators (60) and local authority councillors (just under 1,000) elect 43 Senators on five vocational panels. The Taoiseach of the incoming government gets to decide on 11 Senators. Three Senators are elected by graduates of NUI colleges. Three Senators are elected by graduates of Trinity College (University of Dublin).
In the next Seanad election graduates of any designated institution of higher education in Ireland aged 18 years or over, who are Irish citizens, will be eligible to be electors in a new six-seat higher education constituency.
The Fine Gael executive council plans to ratify in the new year a full list of candidates for all panels. Internal strategists are aiming to present Fine Gael as a party undergoing a period of “renewal”, with 22 of its 38 TDs having been elected for the first time in the November general election. “The next stage of that renewal will be the Seanad Election,” a source said.
Fine Gael wants to see candidates elected in constituencies and counties where there were no Fine Gael TDs elected in November, and in constituencies where the party believes it can win a second or third seat.
The candidates expected to be nominated to contest the election on the inside sub-panels are: Cllr Conor Bergin (Laois), Cllr Vicki Casserly (Dublin Mid-West), Cllr Noel O’Donovan (Cork), Senator Garret Ahearn (Tipperary South), John McNulty (Donegal), Leonora Carey (Clare), Cllr Mark Duffy, (Mayo), Cllr Mike Kennelly (Kerry), Senator Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal East), Cllr David Fitzgerald (Kilkenny), Cllr Carmel Brady, (Cavan), Cllr Cathal Byrne (Wexford), Senator Mary Seery Kearney (Dublin South Central).
In particular constituencies the party is focusing on include Cork South-West, Wexford and Meath West – where Fine Gael hope to see Cllr Noel O’Donovan, Cllr Cathal Bryne and Cllr Linda Nelson Murray elected. The party is also zeroing in on Cllr Mark Duffy in Mayo and Leonora Carey in Clare.
Seanad elections have to take place within 90 days of the dissolution of the Dáil. Candidates can be nominated by four members of the Oireachtas or a nominating body.
