Nominations for the Seanad elections closed at noon yesterday, with 154 candidates competing for 49 of 60 seats. The remaining 11 will be filled on the nomination of the Taoiseach. Deaglán de Bréadún, Political Correspondent, reports.
An electorate of approximately 1,100, comprising local councillors, TDs and outgoing Senators, will decide on 43 of the contested seats, with polls closing on July 23rd.
Fianna Fáil has officially endorsed 51 candidates, Fine Gael has approved 49 and six candidates have the backing of Labour's national executive. Sinn Féin is running Pearse Doherty, who was an unsuccessful Dáil candidate in Donegal South West.
Meanwhile, the Green Party and the Progressive Democrats are each expected to receive two Seanad nominations from the Taoiseach.
Six further Seanad seats are decided in a postal ballot by about 152,000 graduates of the National University of Ireland and the University of Dublin/ Trinity College, with polls closing on July 24th.
Just after nominations closed, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said he was filling four "casual vacancies" created by the election to the Dáil of Mary O'Rourke, Micheál Kitt, Cyprian Brady and Brendan Kenneally.
The appointments are for the remaining life of the present Seanad, ie until July 22nd.
Those nominated are Donie Cassidy, who lost his Dáil seat to Ms O'Rourke in Longford-Westmeath; Chris Wall, a member of the Fianna Fáil national executive and long-time ally of the Taoiseach; Fianna Fáil general secretary Seán Dorgan; and trade unionist Peter Sands, former president of the Local Government and Public Services Union. Mr Cassidy, who has been appointed Leader of the House, will also be a candidate in the forthcoming Seanad elections.
Outgoing Fianna Fáil Senator Don Lydon is not being renominated by the party but is running anyway. Four Oireachtas members can nominate a candidate and, in addition to himself, Mr Lydon secured the backing of Fianna Fáil TD Ned O'Keeffe, PD Senator Tom Morrissey and former Fianna Fáil senator Margaret Cox.
Mr Lydon has been involved in a number of controversies over the years. He reportedly jostled acting Green Party leader Trevor Sargent when the latter waved a cheque at a Dublin county council meeting, in 1993, asking other members if they had received payments for rezoning decisions.
He incurred the displeasure of his own party by giving contradictory evidence to a Fianna Fáil inquiry and to the Mahon tribunal over payments he had received from a developer.
Defeated TDs and other candidates who failed to make it to the incoming Dáil are prominent among the list of Seanad candidates. Fianna Fáil deputies who lost their seats and now seek to make a comeback via the Seanad include former minister of state Ivor Callely as well as Martin Brady, Joe Callanan, John Carty, Donie Cassidy, Denis O'Donovan, Cecilia Keaveney and Ollie Wilkinson.
The Fine Gael ticket includes former frontbench health spokesman Liam Twomey, who lost his Dáil seat in Wexford; Gerard Murphy, who was defeated in Cork North West; and Frances Fitzgerald, who lost her seat in Dublin South East in 2002 and was unsuccessful this time in Dublin Mid West.
Two of Labour's outgoing senators, Kathleen O'Meara and Derek McDowell, are not seeking re-election. Senator Michael McCarthy failed to secure a party endorsement but has been nominated instead by the Irish Council of Trade Unions.
Labour's national executive is running six first-time candidates, all of whom would be seen as contenders for Dáil seats in the next election.
They include Alex White, who stood unsuccessfully in Dublin South; Brendan Ryan, who stood in Dublin North; Dominic Hannigan from Meath East; Eric Byrne, who lost out for the final seat in Dublin South Central; and Phil Prendergast, who stood in Tipperary South. Alan Kelly from Tipperary North is the only Labour Party candidate not to have stood in the general election.
Giving a flavour of the typical Seanad campaign, Ms Prendergast said she expected to drive more than 6,000km between now and the close of voting.
"There are over 880 councillors, 166 TDs and 60 Senators spread from Cork to Donegal. The time available is just less than four weeks," Ms Prendergast said. "The first day I left home at 5am to be in Carlingford for 9am to meet councillors. At 9.30 that night I arrived home having met 11 councillors and spoken to nine more on the phone. The meandering trip was 612 kilometres."