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Fianna Fáil’s Gerry Horkan and Fine Gael’s Maria Byrne have been elected to Seanad Éireann.
Mr Horkan was elected to the Industrial and Commercial Panel and Ms Byrne to the Agricultual Panel. Both were elected on the first count.
Mr Horkan won 114 votes of 203 votes cast, passing the quota of 103. There are no figures yet for Independent candidate Billy Lawless who was expected to poll about 60 votes. Green Party chairperson Hazel Chu, running as an Independent, has 10 votes, with Labour’s Ciarán Ahern amassing a surprisingly high tally of 27.
A former Dublin councillor, Mr Horkan was the Fianna Fáil spokesman on finance in the Seanad between 2016 and 2020. He narrowly lost out on retaining his seat on the Industrial and Commercial Panel during the 2020 Seanad election.
Ms Byrne won 118 votes, bringing her over the quota of 102. A total of 202 TDs and Senators voted. It means that the voting pace between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil has held strong, with the Limerick politician also being supported by many members of the Green Party.
Ms Byrne has more than 20 years of political experience, having served as a Limerick councillor and mayor before being elected to Seanad Éireann in 2016. She too missed out in 2020.
Two other candidates were vying for the vacancy on the Agricultural Panel caused by Fine Gael’s Michael D’Arcy. Former senator Ian Marshall, a unionist, was being supported by Sinn Féin, smaller parties and Independents, while the Labour candidate was Kildare councillor Angela Feeney, who is head of culinary arts at Technological University Dublin.
The electorate for byelections to the Upper House comprises only sitting Senators and TDs, 228 in all.
Joint strategy
Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael agreed a joint candidate strategy with each party standing just one candidate in the hope of electing both. The two main parties in Government have 108 TDs and Senators and, if the agreement held, Ms Byrne and Mr Horkan would be re-elected.
Ms Chu’s decision to run as an independent divided the Green Party, with party leader Eamon Ryan wanting his TDs and senators to vote for Coalition candidates in the expectation they would support a Green candidate should another vacancy arise during the lifetime of this Government. Deputy leader Catherine Martin, on the other hand, signed Ms Chu’s nomination papers.
The two vacancies came about following the resignation of Fine Gael’s Michael D’Arcy to take up a position as chief executive of the Irish Association of Investment Management. Former Sinn Féin senator and Derry mayor Elisha McCallion resigned after it was disclosed she was in receipt of £10,000 (€11,600) in Covid-relief grants under the Small Business Grant scheme in Northern Ireland, for which she was ineligible.