Who are Waterford's Seanad candidates running against?
The Waterford politicians running in various panels in the upcoming Seanad elections.
The full list of Seanad candidates has been revealed, showing who the three Waterford candidates will be competing with to gain a seat in the upper House of the Oireachtas.
The ballot papers for the election of the vocational panels will be issued on January 15, with the polling for the vocational panels closing on January 30. These vocational panels can only be voted for by the 174 TDs in the Dáil, the 949 local authority councillors, and the 60 outgoing Senators. The public is able to vote in the NUI and Trinity College (University of Dublin) panels, having three seats each. In addition to these seats, the Taoiseach is permitted to appoint 11 people to the Seanad.
After losing his seat in the recent General Election, former TD Matt Shanahan has been nominated to stand in the Industrial and Commercial Vocational Panel in the forthcoming Seanad election by ISME, the lobbying group for Irish small and medium enterprises.
“Anyone who knows me or has followed my political career will know I am passionate about SME business and have concerns regarding the increasing challenges within the business environment affecting many of our indigenous sectors," said the Seanad candidate.
Mr Shanahan narrowly lost his seat in the recent general election on the 12th count after four years in the Dáil.
Another Waterford man, Metropolitan Mayor Cllr Joe Kelly has also been nominated to stand for election to the Industrial and Commercial Panel by the Institute of Industrial Engineers and Safety Management Systems. Mayor Kelly is the National Chairperson of the Institute and said that he is "honoured to get the nomination".
"It's a very competitive and difficult election," the Metropolitan Mayor said when he was announced as the body's nominee but added that if he was successfully elected he would "do [his] best for Waterford City and county on issues that impact Waterford."
Cllr Kelly is currently serving his second one-year term as Metropolitan Mayor - having previously held the position in 2018. He previously served as plenary Mayor of Waterford City & County from 2021 to 2022.
Rounding out the Waterford candidates is Labour's Sadhbh O'Neill who was nominated as a candidate for the Trinity panel by the Labour party. The former Dublin City Council member and Irish Times columnist hinted at her aspiration to run in the Seanad election following her elimination from the recent General Election in Waterford. The Trinity College Dublin alumnus is the only Waterford candidate who can be directly elected by the public.
"I’m thrilled to be nominated as a candidate for the TCD Seanad election," the Trinity panel candidate said after receiving the Labour nomination from her party leader Ivana Bacik TD.
"I believe I have a good chance of winning a seat. There are two Green Party candidates standing (bizarrely) which might split the vote."
Two of the candidates are running for election to a vocational panel, specifically, the Industrial and Commercial Panel which has nine seats. Candidates from across the country have also been nominated for the five-seat Cultural and Educational panel, the 11-seat panels of Agricultural and Labour and the seven-seat Administrative panel.
Ms O'Neill will be running against well-known independents Tom Clonan, Lynn Ruane and Katherine Zappone as well as two Green Party politicians in Ossian Smyth and former Lord Mayor of Dublin Hazel Chu in a move O'Neill described as 'bizarre'.
The two other Waterford candidates will be among 27 candidates on the Industrial and Commercial panel, including Matt Dempsey, the former editor of the Irish Farmers’ Journal; Adrian Cummins, the chief executive of the Restaurants Association of Ireland; and a series of sitting Senators.
