The strong performance of the conservative newspaper columnist Rónán Mullen among NUI graduates and the expected election of Prof Ivana Bacik on the Trinity College panel were among the highlights of the continuing count in the Seanad elections yesterday, writes Stephen Collins, Political Editor.
Mr Mullen (36), from Askragh, Co Galway, surprised the rest of the field in the three-seat National University of Ireland constituency by running a strong second in tallies behind outgoing Senator Joe O'Toole. He was ahead of two other outgoing Senators, Feargal Quinn and Brendan Ryan, in informal tallies last night.
A columnist with the Irish Daily Mailand a lecturer in law and communications at the Institute of Technology in Blanchardstown, Mr Mullen is a former press officer with the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin. His candidature was endorsed by Irish rugby coach Eddie O'Sullivan and Irish Timescolumnist and teacher, Breda O'Brien.
Despite his strong performance, Mr Mullen is not guaranteed election and could be overtaken by other candidates if they attract more transfers.
In the election to the three-seat Trinity College constituency, it appeared that Ms Bacik was on course to join outgoing Senators, Shane Ross and David Norris in the new Seanad. Senator Ross topped the poll with 5,379 votes and was elected on the first count. Senator Norris was also re-elected on the first count with 5,240 votes. Prof Bacik was in third with 2,794, more than 1,500 votes ahead of the fourth placed candidate, Dr Maurice Guerét.
Prof Bacik, a Labour Party member who ran for the party in the last European elections, was endorsed by outgoing Senator Mary Henry, who did not contest this election. The Reid professor of law at Trinity, Prof Bacik follows in the footsteps of former president Mary Robinson, who represented the college in the Seanad for almost 20 years. President Mary McAleese was also Reid professor of law at Trinity.
In the continuing count on the vocational panels, elected by county councillors, TDs and Senators, Fianna Fáil lost a seat on the agricultural panel to Pearse Doherty of Sinn Féin who was elected comfortably thanks to a vote-transfer pact with the Labour Party. First-time Labour candidate Alan Kelly was also elected as one of the 11 Senators on the panel, with Fianna Fáil taking five seats and Fine Gael four.
On the labour panel where counting began last night, the Labour Party emerged with a strong chance of taking two of the 11 seats. The surprise was the strong performance of the its outgoing Senator, Michael McCarthy from Cork South West. Mr McCarthy failed to get a nomination from his parliamentary party colleagues but was endorsed by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions to run on an outside panel.
He won more first-preference votes than the official party candidate, Eric Byrne.