THE COALITION parties won a majority in the counts for the 43 seats in the five Seanad vocational panels which were completed in Leinster House yesterday.
Fine Gael secured 18 seats, an increase of four on the 2007 election, while Labour increased its representation by two to eight seats. Sinn Féin, meanwhile, won three seats, an increase of two.
Fianna Fáil won 14 seats, down from the 28 the party secured last time by way of the vocational panels and the taoiseach’s nominees.
Those elected from the vocational panels will be joined in the new Seanad by the six university Senators and the 11 to be nominated by Taoiseach Enda Kenny in the 60-strong chamber.
There was considerable speculation in Leinster House last night that Mr Kenny, while conscious of the need for a secure Government majority, will go outside the ranks of Fine Gael and Labour in making a number of his appointments. He is expected to make his nominations the week after next. Speaking in Leitrim yesterday, Mr Kenny said it was still his intention to hold a referendum to abolish the Seanad and had already asked the Attorney General to prepare the wording.
Fianna Fáil’s performance in the keenly-contested vocational panels surpassed pre-election predictions which were as low as 10 or 11.
The boost for the party came from support for its candidates from Independent councillors, some from the Fianna Fáil “gene pool”, the edge to the campaign generated by tensions between long-serving Senators and the 10 on the recommended list issued by party leader Micheál Martin, and the reported strong support from Sinn Féin for Labhras Ó Murchú and Mark Daly, who retained their seats in panels which were not contested by Sinn Féin.
Mr Martin’s list was aimed at providing new blood and a gender balance in his depleted parliamentary party.
Five of the 10 were elected in what a Fianna Fáil source described last night as “a face-saving and a qualified success, but not exactly an overwhelming endorsement of the leadership”.
The successful five, who will now work towards securing Dáil seats at the next general election, were Thomas Byrne, Meath East, Darragh O’Brien, Dublin North, Marc MacSharry, Sligo-North Leitrim, Brian Ó Domhnaill, Donegal South West and Averil Power, Dublin North East.
The five who failed to make it were former minister of state Seán Connick, Wexford; outgoing Senator James Carroll, Louth; Jennifer Murnane O’Connor, Carlow-Kilkenny; Kenneth O’Flynn, Cork North Central; and Mary Fitzpatrick, Dublin Central.
Ms Fitzpatrick’s defeat in yesterday’s count for the seven seats in the Administrative panel was a considerable setback for Mr Martin’s strategy.
It means that Dublin Central, once the stronghold of former taoiseach Bertie Ahern, now has no Fianna Fáil Oireachtas representative.
Outgoing Fianna Fáil Senators Mark Daly and Diarmuid Wilson retained their seats, while Fine Gael’s three seats were taken by Michael D’Arcy, who lost his Dáil seat in Wexford in the general election, Tom Sheahan, who was defeated in Kerry South, and Clare councillor Martin Conway.
Labour’s John Kelly, an unsuccessful general election candidate in Roscommon-South Leitrim, and Denis Landy, a councillor from Tipperary South, won the two Labour seats.
Mr Daly, a strong Seanad performer, was expected to retain his seat and, although not on the list, would have had Mr Martin’s imprimatur. He may now turn his sights on winning a Dáil seat in Kerry South where Fianna Fáil has no TD. Mr Wilson, a career Senator, who was first elected in 2002, defied the party leadership by running and winning a seat.
Like other well-established Fianna Fáil members of the Upper House, such as Labhras Ó Murchú, Paschal Mooney, Denis O’Donovan, Jim Walsh, Terry Leyden and Ned O’Sullivan, his long experience of the cut-throat Seanad campaign and popularity with councillors won the day.