Conor Bergin, a Fine Gael councillor in Laois for the Borris-in-Ossory/Mountmellick Municipal District, has been confirmed as a candidate in the upcoming Seanad elections.
Bergin, who at 30 is the party’s youngest representative in Laois, is listed as a candidate for one of the seven seats on the Administrative vocational panel.
He has twice been elected to Laois County Council. In 2019 he burst onto the scene as a 25-year-old, winning a seat at the expense of his long-serving Fine Gael colleague David Goodwin. A former assistant to Charlie Flanagan, he is now a qualified solicitor and topped the poll in his area in the Local Elections last June.
He was the first candidate to declare his interest in contesting the General Election following Flanagan’s retirement but withdrew at the very last moment in favour of Willie Aird who subsequently took the first seat in an emphatic election success.
Bergin is one of four Fine Gael candidates for that particular panel – and one of 32 candidates they are running in total across the five vocational panels.
In all there are 60 seats in the Seanad – 43 are elected on the vocational panels by the councillors, TDs and Senators, six on the two university panels (chosen by graduates of Trinity and the National Universities) and 11 are then selected by the Taoiseach of the day.
Among Bergin’s competition for the Seanad are former Kildare South TDs, Cathal Berry (Independent) and Fiona O’Loughlin (Fianna Fáil). Berry lost his seat as a TD in the recent General Election while O’Loughlin, who lost her seat in 2020, has one term behind her as a Senator.
Also on that panel as candidates are outgoing Fine Gael senators Martin Conway from Clare and Garrett Ahearn from Tipperary as well as outgoing Fianna Fáil senators Diarmuid Wilson from Cavan, Mark Daly from Cork and Eugene Murphy from Roscommon.
The deadline for candidates on the vocational panel is December 31. Ballot papers are issued on January 15 and voting closes at 11am on Thursday, January 30. Counting of votes gets underway shortly after polls close.
Should Conor Bergin be elected to the Seanad, then a new candidate would have to be co-opted to Laois County Council to fill the vacancy.
SEE ALSO – Check out all our 2024 General Election coverage here
