OUTGOING TD FOR Carlow-Kilkenny Malcolm Noonan is the sole candidate being put forward by the Green Party in the upcoming Seanad election. 

Voting in the Seanad elections will open on 15 January, via postal vote, and ballots will be counted on 30 January. 

There are 60 seats up for grabs across a number of different panels. Of these, 49 senators are elected and 11 are nominated by the Taoiseach. 

The 11 Taoiseach nominees will undoubtedly form part of government formation talks, which are ongoing, and it is not yet clear what way they will be split up among government parties. 

Nominations from Oireachtas members for the vocational panels in the Seanad will close today, 31 January at midday. This is known as ‘inside nominations’, as they are nominations from within the Oireachtas.

‘Outside nominations’, nominations from organisations and bodies outside of the Oireachtas, closed on 18 December.

Here’s who the main political parties are putting forward via inside nominations:

Fine Gael 

Fine Gael will be putting forward 13 candidates via inside nominations.

Among them are three outgoing senators: Garret Ahern, Alan Farrell and Mary Seery Kearney.

Eight councillors are also being put forward by the party: Conor Bergin, Laois; Vicki Casserly, Dublin Mid-West; Noel O’Donovan, Cork; Mark Duffy, Mayo; Mike Kennelly, Kerry; David Fitzgerald, Kilkenny; Carmel Brady, Cavan; Cathal Byrne, Wexford. 

The other two nominees from Fine gael are John McNulty, who unsuccessfully contested this year’s general election in Donegal, and Leonora Carey, former chair of Fine Gael’s National Executive Council.

Carey unsuccessfully stood in Clare in this year’s general election.

Meanwhile, Fine Gael senator Seán Kyne, who previously said he was quitting politics, has reversed his decision and will seek a seat on the cultural and educational panel.

Fianna Fáil

Fianna Fáil has not yet confirmed how many candidates it will be putting forward via the inside nominations.

Outgoing senator Lorraine Clifford-Lee is among the Fianna Fáil nominations on the Cultural and Educational panel. 

Senator Niall Blaney, who unsuccessfully stood in the European elections earlier this year, is also listed as a candidate for the Agricultural panel. 

Greens

As mentioned above, outgoing TD and junior Minister for Nature Malcolm Noonan is the sole candidate being put forward by the Green Party. He is seeking a seat in the Agricultural Panel. 

Two other candidates, however, Hazel Chu and Ossian Smyth, are seeking election for the party in the University of Dublin panel where senators are chosen by Trinity College alumni.

The Green Party’s five existing senators, including Pippa Hackett, Pauline O’Reilly and Róisín Garvey are not seeking re-election. 

Garvey had been a Taoiseach nominee in the last Seanad, but it is understood the Green Party does not expected to receive any nominees from the Taoiseach this time around. 

Sinn Féin

Sinn Féin has nominated six candidates to contest the Seanad elections, including outgoing TDs Chris Andrews and Pauline Tully. 

The other three candidates are Joanne Collins, Maria McCormack, Nicole Ryan and Northern Ireland Minister Conor Murphy. 

Labour 

The Labour Party has nominated four candidates to stand for the vocational panels this time around. 

All four nominees are councillors: Nessa Cosgrave, Angela Feeney, Laura Harmon and Darragh Moriarty. 

Meanwhile, Sadbh O’Neill, a well known environmentalist who unsuccessfully contested the general election as a Labour candidate, is running for the party in the University of Dublin panel.

Existing Labour senators Rebecca Moynihan and Annie Hoey are not seeking re-election.

Social Democrats

The Social Democrats are running just two candidates – Patricia Stephenson, who unsuccessfully stood for a Dáil seat in Carlow-Kilkenny and councillor Joan Hopkins, who unsuccessfully stood for a seat in Fingal East in this year’s general election.

Independent Ireland

Michael Collins’ party Independent Ireland is putting forward one candidate. 

Galway Councillor Noel Thomas will contest the election for a seat on the Agricultural panel. 

Aontú

Likewise, Aontú is putting forward just one candidate with Cavan councillor Sarah O’Reilly contesting a seat on the Agricultural panel. 

Independents

Among the list of notable Independent candidates seeking election is disability rights campaigner Ann Marie Flanagan who has been nominated to run for the Administrative panel by Independent Living Movement Ireland and the Irish Deaf Society.

Biologist, author and presenter Éanna Ní Lamhna is also contesting a seat this year having been nominated by An Taisce for the Cultural and Educational panel.

Adrian Cummins, chief of the Restaurants Association, will also contest a seat on the Commercial panel. 

Meanwhile, Eileen Flynn, who made history in 2020 by becoming the first woman from the Traveller community to take a seat in Seanad Éireann, is also seeking re-election. 

University panels 

Two of the panels – the University of Dublin panel and the NUI panel – have their members elected by university graduates. Three senators are elected to each of these panels. 

The full list of who is running in the university panels is available here.