Four TDs who lost their seats in the recent general election were among the 11 nominees appointed by the Taoiseach to the Seanad yesterday. The inclusion of newspaper columnist Eoghan Harris and the former junior minister, Ivor Callely, forced to resign from office in 2005, were the big surprises writes Stephen Collins, Political Editor.
Mr Ahern appointed two Green Party Senators and two Progressive Democrats as part of the deal negotiated during the formation of the Government. In return, councillors from both parties voted for Fianna Fáil candidates in the Seanad election.
The appointment of Sunday Independentcolumnist and film studies lecturer Eoghan Harris was one of the big talking points. A long time critic of the republican movement, Mr Harris was at one time adviser to Fine Gael leader John Bruton. He expressed strong support for Mr Ahern during the initial payments controversy last October and again during the election campaign.
The other major surprise was the appointment of Mr Callely, the former junior minister who resigned in December 2005 after a long-running controversy over work done to his family home as a gift. Mr Callely narrowly lost his seat in Dublin North Central, which had been reduced from a four to a three-seat constituency in the general election, but he only polled nine votes in the Seanad election.
The appointment of the Taoiseach's 11 comes after the election of 49 Senators, 43 on the vocational panels and six from the two university constituencies. Fianna Fáil now has 28 seats in the Seanad, Fine Gael 14, Labour six, Greens two, PDs two and Sinn Féin one. There are seven Independent Senators. The Government parties have 32 of the 60 seats - a working majority.
The four Senators from Fianna Fáil's Coalition partners appointed by the Taoiseach yesterday were Dan Boyle, the former Green Party TD, who lost his seat in Cork South Central, and Cllr Deirdre de Burca, the party's candidate in Wicklow. The two PDs are Fiona O'Malley, who lost her Dáil seat in Dún Laoghaire and Cllr Ciaran Cannon, from East Galway, who polled more than 3,500 votes in the election.
Apart from Mr Callely the other five Fianna Fáil nominees are Martin Brady, who lost his seat in Dublin North East; Cllr Maria Corrigan from Dún Laoghaire Rathdown: John Ellis, who lost his seat in Roscommon-South Leitrim; Cllr Lisa McDonald, who ran in Wexford; and Cllr Brian Ó Domhnaill from Donegal.
Mr Callely and Mr Ellis are both controversial figures in Fianna Fáil. Mr Ellis's political misfortunes were compounded by a long-running campaign against him by farmers in the west who claim they were not paid for cattle by a company in which he was involved.
There was considerable speculation in recent weeks that the Taoiseach would nominate Rachel Doherty, daughter of former TD and senator Seán Doherty, as the first step in trying to recover the Dáil seat lost to Fine Gael, but Mr Ellis has been given another chance. The appointment of Ms Corrigan, a psychologist in Dublin South, is calculated to give her a strong chance of winning a seat at the next election if the senior Fianna Fáil TD for the constituency, Séamus Brennan, decides not to run again.
Ms Corrigan's partner is former Fianna Fáil councillor and friend of the Taoiseach Joe Burke, who was one of those who contributed to the "dig out" for Mr Ahern in 1993/1994, which became the subject of public controversy last October.
The Taoiseach also appointed Donie Cassidy (FF) as leader of the Seanad. There was a great deal of sympathy in Fianna Fáil for defeated Dáil and Seanad candidates, Ollie Wilkinson in Waterford and Joe Callanan in Galway East. Both had been expected to be on the Taoiseach's list.