A major Seanad election battle is expected between outgoing senator and retired INTO secretary general, Mr Joe O'Toole, and former ASTI president, Ms Bernadine O'Sullivan, after the university panel nominations closed yesterday.
All six outgoing senators on the Trinity College and National University of Ireland Seanad panels are seeking re-election. They join 23 other candidates in the postal ballot, which closes on July 17th. The NUI panel has an electorate of 101,952 university graduates.
There are 16 candidates on the NUI panel, including Ms O'Sullivan, Senator O'Toole, Senator Feargal Quinn (Ind) and Senator Brendan Ryan (Lab), who failed in his bid for a Dáil seat in the general election.
The Trinity College panel has 13 candidates, including the three outgoing senators: Dr Mary Henry (Ind), Mr David Norris (Ind) and journalist Mr Shane Ross (Ind).
Reid Professor of Criminal Law at Trinity College and abortion rights campaigner, Ms Ivana Bacik, standing for the second time, is among the Trinity candidates. Prof William Binchy, professor of law at Trinity and a legal advisor to the Pro-Life campaign, is not running again. In the battle for the NUI, Ms O'Sullivan, a prominent opponent of the benchmarking pay review process, hopes to gather votes from disaffected teachers from all three teaching unions. She is expected to be supported by teachers angry at the ASTI's failure to win support from the other teaching unions, the INTO and the TUI.
Mr Brendan Price, director the Irish Seal Sanctuary, standing on the NUI panel, also ran in the last Seanad election.
Ms Linda O'Shea Farren, a human rights advocate and solicitor from Dublin, also stood on the NUI panel in the 1997 Seanad election, while Ms Prabhu Kulkarni a research chemist, stood on the Trinity panel last time around.
Meanwhile, the Taoiseach has nominated the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, and Fianna Fáil's general secretary, Mr Martin Mackin, to the Seanad.
The two will hold their positions for only a matter of weeks until Seanad elections in July. However, with outgoing Senators having a vote in the contest, the appointments will increase the party's influence over the composition of the next Seanad.
They replace Mr Tom Fitzgerald, who resigned recently, and Dr Dermot Fitzpatrick, who has been elected to the Dáil.
Ms O'Rourke will either contest the Seanad election or be renominated by the Taoiseach after the election. She is strongly tipped to be the next Cathaoirleach of the Upper House.
Mr Mackin will not contest the election and is unlikely to be reappointed afterwards.
However, membership of either House of the Oireachtas, even for a very short period, confers a number of benefits, including free parking for life at Leinster House and unrestricted access to the Leinster House complex and its members' facilities.
A former Taoiseach, Mr Charles Haughey, nominated his then press secretary, Mr P.J. Mara, to the Seanad for similar reasons.