THE FALLOUT from the Seanad elections is already influencing the battle lines in some constituencies for the next general election.
Fine Gael was the big winner, securing 18 seats, and it now finds itself with an embarrassment of Oireachtas riches in some constituencies.
The party’s one black spot is Dublin North West, where it has no Oireachtas representative.
The two Fine Gael candidates, Lord Mayor of Dublin Gerry Breen and Dr Bill Tormey, polled 2,988 and 2,508 first preferences respectively in the general election but failed to secure a seat.
They also failed to get elected to the Seanad. However, Mr Breen is expected to feature in Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s 11 nominees, not least because he moved to Dublin North West from his traditional Dublin City Council base in Clontarf, in Dublin North Central, to facilitate the party.
The five-seat Carlow-Kilkenny base of the highly effective director of elections and Minister for the Environment, Phil Hogan, is now a jewel in the party’s electoral crown.
Fine Gael has three of the five Dáil seats as well as Kilkenny-based Senator Patrick O’Neill.
Fine Gael now has two Senators, Tony Mulcahy and Martin Conway, in the four-seat Clare constituency where it also has two TDs, and two, Paul Coghlan and Tom Sheahan, in the three-seat Kerry South where the party has one TD. It also has two Senators, Michael Comiskey and Imelda Henry, in Sligo-North Leitrim where the party holds two of the three seats.
Labour’s strategy was also effective, with the eight Senators ready to cultivate Dáil seats.
Except for Denis Landy, Tipperary South, the others, Susan O’Keeffe, Sligo-North Leitrim; John Whelan, Laois-Offally, James Heffernan, Limerick, Jimmy Harte, Donegal North-East, Marie Moloney, Kerry South, John Gilroy, Cork North Central, and John Kelly, Roscommon-South Leitrim, all contested the recent general election.
Mr Landy becomes the Dáil aspirant in Tipperary South because former senator Phil Prendergast, who contested the general election in the constituency, replaced newly elected TD for Tipperary North and Minister of State Alan Kelly in the European Parliament.
Sinn Féin’s three Senators Trevor Ó Clochartaigh, Galway West, Kathryn Reilly, Cavan-Monaghan, and David Cullinane, Waterford, also contested the general election and will now use their Seanad base to work for Dáil seats.
The five of the 10 on Mr Martin’s Fianna Fáil list elected to the Seanad will be building up a Dáil base in constituencies where the party has no sitting TD, which should make them fertile political ground between now and the next general election.
They are Thomas Byrne, Meath East, Darragh O’Brien, Dublin North, Marc MacSharry, Sligo-North Leitrim, Brian Ó Domhnaill, Donegal South-West, and Averil Power, Dublin North East.
Of the other nine elected, Mr Martin may look to Senator Denis O’Donovan in Cork South-West and Senator Mark Daly in Kerry South, who were not on the list, to cultivate Dáil seats in two other constituencies where the party is also without a TD.
