FIANNA FÁIL is on course for a better-than-expected performance in the Seanad election which is due to finish today.
The strategy of party leader Micheál Martin in attempting to get potential TDs elected was a qualified success, with at least five and possibly six of his list of 10 favoured candidates set to become senators.
The election of Averil Power on the Industrial and Commercial panel last night represented an important victory for Mr Martin’s strategy of attempting to get some new young blood into the parliamentary party.
Fianna Fáil looks set to win at least 14 seats when all the votes are counted. This would be three more than expected at the beginning of the week but it still represents a big drop on the 28 seats the party won in the 60-member chamber in 2007.
The victory of Ms Power and Mary White yesterday, along with Marc MacSharry, means that there will now be at least two women members of the parliamentary party, which had been an all-male preserve after the general election.
The party leadership is hoping that Mary Fitzpatrick, who stood in Dublin Central in the general election, will be elected today as one of the party’s representatives on the seven-seat administrative panel which will conclude the count.
Fianna Fáil has enough votes for two seats but has an outside chance of a third as one of its outgoing senators, Mark Daly, is expected to pick up the entire Sinn Féin vote.
Ms White, who topped the poll with 78,000 votes, was openly critical of Mr Martin’s Seanad strategy, describing the list of 10 recommended candidates as “totally wrong and undemocratic”.
When all of the 43 seats on the five panels have been filled its looks as if Fine Gael will have 18 seats, Fianna Fáil 14 or 15, Labour seven or eight and Sinn Féin three.
The extra Seanad seats obtained by Fianna Fáil will bring the strength of the parliamentary party up to at least 34 from its current 20. There is an important financial aspect to the result, as each senator is worth an extra €15,872 to the party in its annual grant from the exchequer.
Fine Gael is set to gain four seats and it will be happy to see former TDs like Deirdre Clune and Michael Darcy return to the Oireachtas.
The number of women elected for Fine Gael is also important for the party’s future electoral prospects. Two more women, Imelda Henry from Sligo and Catherine Noone from Dublin were elected last night, along with Paul Coghlan from Kerry and Colm Burke from Cork.
Labour managed to get a number of candidates who came close to Dáil seats, such as John Whelan from Laois and John Gilroy from Cork North Central, elected. Sinn Féin will be happy to win three seats and particularly with the victory of Katherine Reilly from Cavan last night.
On the National University panel hospital consultant John Crown was elected along with outgoing senators Ronan Mullen and Fergal Quinn.
In Trinity College David Norris was elected far ahead of the rest of the field with 35 per cent of the vote while Ivana Bacik retained her seat. Economist Seán Barrett last night won the third seat on the panel.
