Local candidates retain their seats in the Seanad
By Maurice Garvey
THE Seanad elections saw a number of local candidates retain their seats in the upper house - Lynn Ruane (Ind), Catherine Ardagh (FF) and Fintan Warfield (SF).
Former MEP Lynn Boylan (SF), from Kilnamanagh is back in politics Dublin, winning a seat on the Agricultural panel.
Kilnamanagh’s Lynn Boylan
Senator Boylan said: “I’m delighted to be elected to the Seanad and to be joining the biggest Sinn Féin electoral team.
“Now more than ever, our communities need representatives who will represent their best interests.
“The pandemic has brought home to us how valuable our public services are and why they need real investment and support.
“It has highlighted why everyone deserves a safe and secure roof over their head.
“It has also shown us that measures that we were told weren’t possible are possible – measures like a rent freeze.
“We must learn from that. We must build a strong single tier health system, we must build homes and we must pay essential workers properly.
“When this pandemic is over, we also need to take radical actions to tackle climate change and the biodiversity crisis.
“We are facing a collapse of our ecosystems and the pandemic has proven that there can be no return to business as usual.
“It is time to put people and planet first and I look forward to bringing my voice to the climate emergency debate.”
Rebecca Moynihan, (Lab), a former Cllr in Dublin South Central, makes the jump from local to national politics after winning a seat on the Administrative panel.
Of the 60 Senators who make up the Seanad, 49 were elected, including 14 women.
The 11 Taoiseach nominations for the Seanad are set to be mostly, if not all, women.
No media were allowed in to the counts at the Printworks in Dublin Castle or at UCD or Trinity College, and candidates were asked to stay away due to Covid-19.
It was live-streamed on the Oireachtas website and social media platforms due to the current restrictions in place.
Crumlin Senator Ardagh, a former Dublin South Central Councillor, was hoping to win a seat in the Dáil in GE 2020, but retained a seat on the Industrial and Commercial panel in the Seanad.
Among the Senators who lost their seats were Máire Devine (SF), a former South Dublin County Councillor.
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