EARLY INDICATIONS from the Seanad election count were that Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin will succeed in getting a number of his favoured candidates elected.
Former Meath TD Thomas Byrne, one of the 10 names on Mr Martin’s list, was the leading Fianna Fáil candidate on the five-seat Cultural and Educational panel, and took one of the two seats obtained by the party last night.
The other Fianna Fáil seat went to long-serving senator Labhrás Ó Murchú, who polled strongly and stayed ahead of another outgoing party senator, Ann Ormonde.
Fianna Fáil sources at the count suggested that Mr Ó Murchú benefited from strong support from Sinn Féin, which did not have a candidate on the Cultural and Educational panel, the most difficult one on which to get elected.
The first candidate elected to the 24th Seanad was the former Fine Gael TD for Cork South Central, Deirdre Clune, who narrowly lost out in the general election.
Ms Clune is widely expected to be appointed leader of the Seanad by Taoiseach Enda Kenny when all the seats are filled.
Fine Gael won two seats on the Cultural and Educational panel, with Michael Mullins from Galway getting elected along with Ms Clune.
Labour took one seat, with John Gilroy, who came close to winning a Dáil seat in Cork North Central in the general election, topping the poll on the first count. However, he had a long wait to be elected as there were no other party candidates running on the panel to provide him with transfers.
The talking point of the count was Fianna Fáil’s performance, with the party’s candidates polling far more votes on the panel than the number of its councillors, TDs and senators would warrant. “We had 1.43 quotas on the panel but we got enough votes for 2.4 quotas, about the same as Fine Gael, who have far more councillors and TDs,” said one of the party’s tallymen.
Later a Fianna Fáil spokesman said that winning two seats on the Cultural and Educational panel was a very good result, considering the party’s strength.
The success of Mr Byrne, the sole Fianna Fáil candidate on Mr Martin’s list for the Cultural and Educational panel, prompted party sources to speculate that six or seven of the 10 favoured candidates could ultimately be elected.
Fianna Fáil is expected to win 12 or 13 seats out of the 43 up for grabs on the five vocational panels. The party had 28 seats in the outgoing Seanad.
The electorate for the five panels is made up of 1,065 county and borough councillors, TDs and existing senators.
The first count on the 11-seat Agricultural panel which was announced late last night was saw one of Mr Martin’s favoured candidates, Brian O Domhnaill who was an unsuccessful Dáil candidate in Donegal South West, in a strong position to get elected. He was the joint leading candidate for the party.
However the other two candidate on the official list, former Minister Sean Connick and outgoing senator James Carroll from Louth, were well behind the front runners.
Former Minister Martin Mansergh polled very badly, but former TD Eamon Scanlon polled well. Labour’s James Heffernan was elected having topped the poll on the panel, followed by Paddy Burke of Fine Gael. Sinn Féin candidate Trevor O Clochtaraigh was in third place. All three are certain of election.
Counting on the five panels is not expected to finish until Friday evening, when it will become clear whether or not the Fianna Fáil leader has managed to impose his will on the party.
Counting of votes by university graduates in the National University of Ireland and Trinity College, Dublin, will begin today. Each of the university constituencies will elect three senators. The final 11 members of the Seanad, which bring the total number to 60, will be nominated by the Taoiseach.
