Laois Fine Gael councillor Conor Bergin hasn’t been included among the Taoiseach’s 11 nominations for the Seanad.
Bergin, who unsuccessfully contested the recent Seanad elections, could still have become a Senator had he been one of the nominations put forward by Taoiseach Micheal Martin.
A feature of the complex Seanad election process is that only 49 of the 60 seats are filled by election. The remaining 11 are nominated by the Taoiseach.
As part of the Government formation deal, Fianna Fáil had six of these nominations while Fine Gael had the remaining five.
But Bergin, who had withdrawn from the Fine Gael General Election in Laois last September in favour of Willie Aird, has been overlooked.
Fine Gael have instead opted to give their nominations to Nikki Bradley and Manus Boyle (both from Donegal), Noel O’Donovan (Cork), Gareth Scahill (Roscommon) and the surprise packet RTE sports presenter Evanne Ni Chuilinn.
In 2020 all four of Fine Gael’s nominees were women, two of their five on this occasion are female.
Five of Fianna Fáil’s six nominees are female, addressing in some way their shortage of women TDs, where they had just seven elected in the General Election compared to 42 men.
Former Minister for State Anne Rabbitte is included along with outgoing Senator Lorraine Clifford-Lee, General Election candidates Dee Ryan (Limerick), Alison Comyn (Louth) and Imelda Goldsboro (Tipperary). Former Longford-Westmeath TD Joe Flaherty is Fianna Fáil’s sole male Senator.
In the case of Lorraine Clifford-Lee, it is the second time she has been one of the Taoiseach’s nominees having also got into the Seanad via that route in 2020. She was elected in 2016 but was unsuccessful in her Dáil bids in 2016, 2020 and 2024, as well as falling short in the actual Seanad elections in 2020 and 2025.
Increasing the number of women in the Oireachtas was one obvious consideration for the Government’s two lead parties as was constituency concerns.
Nominating someone from a constituency that had no party TD – or where they are keen to win a second seat – are generally deemed priorities.
With Willie Aird comfortably elected to the Dáil in November’s General Election, the Laois constituency isn’t as high up Fine Gael’s list of concerns as elsewhere.
Bergin’s chances of being elected to the Seanad via the election process was diminished by going for the Administrative panel, the cliched group of death, where there were 17 candidates for seven seats, six of whom were outgoing Senators.
Additionally Sinn Féin and Labour were seeking to retain their seats on that panel, albeit with new candidates.
It meant that outgoing Fianna Fáil Senators Diarmuid Wilson (Cavan), Mark Daly (Kerry) and Fiona O’Loughlin (Kildare) were all returned as were Fine Gael duo Martin Conway (Clare) and Garret Ahearn (Tipperary).
Sinn Féin’s Nicole Ryan (Cork) was also elected as was Independent Eileen Flynn, who had been a Taoiseach’s nominee on the last occasion.
The Seanad will sit for the first time next Wednesday – where Laois will be represented by Sinn Fein’s Maria McCormack.
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