Laois woman Maria McCormack is on course to be elected to Seanad Éireann for Sinn Féin, after an impressive first preference vote essentially guaranteed her a second seat for the party on the Labour vocational panel.
McCormack’s impending election to the Seanad completes a remarkable year in the political world.
The Ballyroan native but Portlaoise resident polled poorly in June’s Local Elections and then strongly as Sinn Féin’s new candidate in the General Election in November.
Her success means that she is now Sinn Féin’s only elected representative in Laois, following the resignations of TD Brian Stanley and councillors Aidan Mullins and Caroline Dwane-Stanley.
In a pre-Seanad election statement she said that if successful she will open a Portlaoise office and the party’s quest to win back the seat at the next General Election is underway.
Former Dublin South TD Chris Andrews was Sinn Féin’s marquee name on the Labour panel but with 11 seats up for grabs, Maria McCormack was comfortably their next stronger performer from their four candidates.
She got 89 first preference votes (counted as 89,000), putting her within touching distance of the quota which was just above 95,834.
Sinn Féin’s outgoing Senator on this panel – Paul Gavin from Limerick – as well as Dublin city councillor Daithí Doolan got just 10,000 and 5,000 votes respectively but Sinn Féin had more than two quotas among their four candidates, and duly will get two elected.
Fianna Fáil’s Robbie Gallagher from Monaghan, a Senator since 2016, topped the poll with 115,000 while Independent Senator Gerard Craughwell was next with 95,000.
Andrews and Patricia Stephenson of the Social Democrats were next in line with 94,000 with McCormack up next.
For the vocational panels in the Seanad, the electorate is made up of sitting TDs and councillors as well as outgoing Senators. In all there was a total electorate of just under 1,200.
An elected Senator has a salary (circa €80,000), an option to take on an administrative assistant and support in a range of areas including the setting up of an office.
Counting of votes for the Administrative panel for which Laois councillor Conor Bergin is seeking a seat won’t get underway until Sunday at the earliest.
There are 60 seats in the Seanad in total, 43 of which are on the vocational panels (voted by councillors, TDs and Senators) and six on the University panels (voted by graduates of Trinity College and the National Universities). The remaining 11 will be selected by Taoiseach Micheal Martin.
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