Adrian Kavanagh, 28th April 2011

Fine Gael 4 seats, Fianna Fail 4 seats, Labour Party 2 seats, Sinn Fein 1 seat

Elected: James Heffernan LB , Paddy Burke FG, Paul Bradford FG, Trevor Ó Clochartaigh SF, Brian Ó Dohmnaill FF, Pat O’Neill FG, Michael Comiskey FG, Jim Walsh FF, Pascal Mooney FF, Dennis O’Donovan FF, Susan O’Keeffe LB (Inside panel candidates underlined)

This proved to be a very good result for Fianna Fail. Depsite the fact that their share of the Seanad electorate was quivalent to just under 3 quotas, Fianna Fail managed to win four seats on this panel with the final seat coming at the expense of what would have been anticipated as being a probable fifth Fine Gael seat. Labour with almost exactly two quotas on this panel managed to win two seats, although things proved to be a bit more close for comfort in winning the second seat than they should have been for the party.  

Fine Gael candidates won a combined number of 448 (or 448,000) first preference votes for this panel (42.0%), while Fianna Fail candidates won 326 (3o.6%) and Labour’s two candidates won 166 (15.6%). Sinn Fein’s sole candidate won 82 (7.7%) and the two independent candidates won 44 (4.1%).

Female candidates won 6.5% of the first preference votes (69)  but this low share can be explained by the fact that there was only one female candidate (Labour’s Susan O’Keeffe) contesting this panel. She ultimately went on to win a seat on this panel.  

While Cultural and Education proved a happy hunting ground for Munster candidates, the Agricultural panel was dominated by candidates from the Connacht-Ulster region who won 474 votes (44.3%), as again just 347 votes (32.5%) for Munster candidates, 226 votes (21.1%) for Leinster candidates, and a meagre 22 votes (2.1%) for the sole Dublin candidate.