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WELL, WELL, WELL another election is it?
It’s been the year of elections both nationally and internationally, and in Ireland we are rounding things off with a Seanad election for good measure.
Well technically, polling for the Seanad election isn’t until January, but the ball is well and truly rolling so here is everything you need to know.
Yes, a Seanad election must take place within 90 days of the Dáil being dissolved – this was done when Taoiseach Simon Harris went to Áras an Uachtaráin on 8 November ahead of the general election.
The Seanad is the upper house of the Irish parliament, or the Oireachtas as we call it.
It is made up of 60 members, known as senators, who sit for a period of no more than five years.
To become a senator you must be a citizen of Ireland and be 21 years of age or older.
The Seanad has a legislative role but is not as powerful as the Dáil.
It can only delay laws with which it disagrees by a total of 90 days. It cannot stop them. It has no powers to delay a budget, but it can initiate legislation.
The Seanad comprises a number of panels.
Of the 60 senators, 49 are elected and 11 are nominated by the Taoiseach.
Of the 49, six are elected directly by university graduates – three from what National University of Ireland graduates, and three from University of Dublin (Trinity) graduates.
It is – but not yet.
In September of this year, the Government introduced a bill that will extend voting rights in Seanad elections to all graduates of higher education in Ireland.
The bill was introduced off the back of a Supreme Court ruling which held that the existing university electoral panels for Seanad Éireann are unconstitutional.
It was signed into law by President Higgins in October, but this election will continue to run under the old system.
For all future Seanad elections, the existing University of Dublin constituency and the NUI constituency, will be replaced with a new six seater ‘Higher Education’ panel.
If you are a graduate of Trinity College then you can vote to elect the three senators in this panel.
Currently, 16 candidates have been nominated to contest the University of Dublin election.
The current University of Dublin senators are Tom Clonan and Lynn Ruane. The third seat was held by David Norris, who retired in January 2024.
For the NUI panel, graduates of the universities of University College Dublin, University College Cork, University of Galway and Maynooth University can all vote.
Some 12 candidates have been nominated to contest the NUI election.
Its three current senators are Michael McDowell, Alice-Mary Higgins and Rónán Mullen. All three are seeking re-election.
To check if you are on the register or make sure your address is correct you should email records@nui.ie or academic.registry@tcd.ie. The closing date for applications to the register was 26 February 2024.
The other 43 senators are elected by politicians from five special vocational panels.
The five vocational panels are made up of candidates who are said to have knowledge and experience of the following areas:
There are two ways a person can be nominated to run for one of these panels.
They can either be nominated by four TDs or outgoing senators, or are nominated by a registered nominating organisation.
The electorate for these panels are made up of members of the incoming Dáil, members of the outgoing Seanad, and members of county councils and city councils.
Nominations for the university panels closed last Friday, 6 December and the election for these six seats will be held by postal ballot.
Ballot papers will be posted to over 112,000 electors on the NUI Register and the 76,000 electors on the University of Dublin Register from 30 December 2024.
The poll will close on 29 January 2025 at 11.00am.
For the vocational panels, the deadline for nominees from nominating panels will be 18 December, while the deadline for nominees by members of the Oireachtas will be on 31 December.
Ballot papers for these panels will then be issued on 15 January and polling will close on 30 January.
The 11 Taoiseach nominees will be dependent on when government formation talks conclude and when we have a new Taoiseach decided.
University of Dublin (Trinity)
NUI Constituency
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Golden opportunity to get rid of that taxpayer funded talking shop, but Paddy knew best
@Buster Lawless: indeed, we have
@Fintan Pox: People voted for it to change and Kenny threw his toys out of the pram and refused any change and yet you adore him, do you know anything? Looking at your comments it seems not.
@Fintan Pox: a dictatorship!!!
@Brian D’Arcy: no they didn’t. Lenny made it perfectly clear that people were voting to get rid of or keep. He made absolutely no reference to changing it. The people voted. End of story.
@Dave G Doe: A decent man,as was the late John bruton.
@Brian D’Arcy: wrong, option for change wasn’t contained in the referendum, it was a simple Yes or No
@Dave G Doe: a great leader, rescued the country from economic turmoil and left office with an unblemished record
@Dave G Doe: I take it your comment was made in jest
No Chu Zappone or Smith Please
@Dan Murphy: why? Is theyow some ting wong with chu?
@Dan Murphy: PLEASE PLEASE please no Zappone and reform reform but I don’t think they will
Members of the Seanad should be elected by the public and all candidates should not be party aligned
I have a vote in these ‘superiority ‘ charades…..NEVER ONCE availed of it….. I find the whole thing a bit sickeningly condescending in truth. In what universe should Mrs Mc Carthy & I have some ‘right’ to vote on anything that the vast VAST majority of population have no say in
@Frank Mc Carthy: I don’t believe that you have a vote. ‘Mrs Mc Carthy’ certainly doesn’t, as she is purely fictitious.
@Brendan O’Brien: with respect, what you’ believe’ interests me about as much as siberian basketball results
@Frank Mc Carthy: one of the criteria for voter eligibility is you need to be resident in Ireland. You, as you often tell us, spent your adult life in the US, so you were not eligible to vote whilst you lived there. So this claim that you NEVER ONCE availed of your right to vote isn’t much of a claim, is it?
@Kevin Kerr: ever hear of POST????, lol,do you really think every graduate from the ‘choosen’ universities is still resident in Ireland????
@Brendan O’Brien: hey brenny I see over on that innocent article about the “kneecap” movie winning awards your sick juvenile comments have been removed —- maybe the journal does do moderation after all……. WON’T be good news for your accounts
@Frank Mc Carthy: I’ll give you that one, much as it pains me
If you ran in the General Election and were unsuccessful you should not be given a seat in the Seanad.
@Dermot Clancy: it depends. If you are Trinity Graduate, I think it’s ok.
If they become senators and were tds who lost their seats there should be no payouts for their time as tds this would be an outrageous insult to the irish taxpay
We need to have sympathy for the ideologically trapped left wing who see the competent management of Ireland and are stuck in a defunct Marxist mindset. Thankfully some have changed as they finally realised that they needed to catch up with modern thinking.
@thomas molloy: catch up with modern thinking, says the guy who also advocates for Catholic teachings from 2000 years ago and beyond
@thomas molloy: blah blah blah blah Marxist blah blah blah blah woke blah blah blah blah left wing blah blah blah communist blah blah blah blah blah blah
@thomas molloy: Ronan Mullins gets his seat from one of the academic panels. Can’t get more conservative than that
@thomas molloy: Oh look, it’s the self righteous right wing clap trapper.
Senate would be viable if given proper power and elected by everyone rather than those who just went through higher education. That being said, I can vote.
So josepha madigan has had to be dragged in front of the high court to get her to pay back some loans to a bank. Party of law and order indeed!
Another waste of tax payers money what sort of golden hand shake pensions are those leeches entitled to??? It’s only a talking shop for the REJECTS who want to massage each other’s Egos we have enough spongers in the system
Let’s hope those moon-howlers like Ronán Mullen, Sharon Keoghan and Gerard Craughwell don’t get re-elected.
It’s a ridiculous situation where I have a vote as a BA graduate of NUI but my daughter who has a MSc through what was then an Institute of Education doesn’t.
@Paddy Whelan: in fairness, getting a vote from the place for repeating the leaving doesnt meet the criteria.
DCU and LU will always be NIHE (Nearly in Higher Education) too. G’wan Trinners and Stillorgan Airport!
That Mulcahy running for a TCD is Mulcahy as in The Phoenix, btw (an FF weeweefunnell).
Will Ronán Collins still be on RTE Gold?
@rqHSc3FP: another mess
They will stick Clifford lee and donollly in to keep their snouts in the trough.
I can vote.
Shame nobody called O’Connor nominated. Imagine – Seanad O’Connor.
If the Seanad can only delay laws with which it disagrees by a total of 90 days and cannot stop them why the hell do we have it?. I know we voted to keep it but the referendum question was completely flawed on inception.The Seanad is used by rejected TDs, by friends of the Taoiseach and any other brown nosed lackey the government see fit to install there.It is a disgusting waste of public money and must dissolved permanently.
have your say