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SECURITY ANALYST AND columnist for The Journal, Tom Clonan, has been elected as Ireland’s latest Senator following the Trinity Seanad by-election.
“My head is spinning at the moment,” Clonan told RTÉ’s Late Debate following his election.
He said he wasn’t at the count centre because he wasn’t expecting to be elected, and he had previous obligations to meet whistleblowers in Cork.
“I just want to thank everybody who voted for me and the other candidates,” he said, adding that it was “such a collegiate campaign”.
Clonan beat out Maureen Gaffney in the final count to win by 160 votes, with a total of 5,358 votes. Gaffney received 5,198 votes.
Gaffney came ahead of Green Party councillor Hazel Chu in the fifteenth count, leading to Chu’s elimination.
In the final count, Clonan came out on top with the most transfers from Chu.
It wasn't to be in the end but coming 3rd in #TCDseanad an election many told me I had no hope in made me realise a few things:
-There's always hope. -More women & more individuals of diversity need to run. -Trinity voters want change-they want reform. I'm a non Trinity Grad 1/2 pic.twitter.com/luItu64GcP
Early on, Hugo MacNeill, a former Irish international rugby player and chairman of the British-Irish Association, had originally topped the poll and was in the lead up until the tenth count.
He was officially eliminated after the fourteenth count, when PHD student Ursula Quill had her votes redistributed. MacNeill thanked those who voted for him, and congratulated Clonan on a “stellar” campaign, saying he will make an “outstanding” senator.
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Kildare businessman Aubrey McCarthy and DCU assistant professor Sadhbh O’Neill were eliminated on the twelfth and eleventh counts respectively.
Clonan’s son Eoghan, who is a wheelchair user, was his father’s campaign manager.
Tom Clonan said that it was almost a “protest” campaign, and that he hopes to continue to raise topics such as disability and access, as well as gender-based violence issues in his new role.
He said that independent academic senators are important to hold the Government to account, and that he takes “great inspiration” from his fellow independent Trinity senators, Lynn Ruane and his cousin, David Norris.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin congratulated Tom Clonan on winning the Seanad seat.
“No doubt you will be a strong voice and advocate for disability rights in Seanad Éireann and I wish you every success.”
The by-election is being held to fill the vacant Trinity seat caused by Ivana Bacik’s election to the Dáil.
TD Bacik was elected last year in the Dublin Bay South constituency by-election. She was last week confirmed as the new leader of the Labour Party following the resignation of Alan Kelly.
There were 17 candidates vying for the vacant Seanad seat. Over 67,000 Trinity graduates are registered to vote.
Ballot papers were issued to registered electors in February and polls closed yesterday.
Additional reporting by Orla Dwyer and Hayley Halpin
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@Tricia G ☘️: In theory but in reality you’re asking for the mostly FF & FG Seanad to keep the mostly FF & FG Dail in check.
If the Seanad really were to exist as a check then it shouldn’t allow political appointments and only independents should be allowed run for election. That ideal is very far removed from what the Seanad actually is.
Reform will also never happen since it’s not in the interest of ruling parties to create constructs to restrict their influence.
@Tricia G ☘️: you couldn’t have voted to “reform” it, because there was no such option on your ballot, which offered only two options: abolish the senate – yes or no. So you delude yourself in thinking you voted for reform. You did no such thing: you voted to keep it, warts and all.
@Gavin Tobin: we had our chance to get rid of it but people preferred to give Enda a bloody nose
Useless talking shop
Challenge anybody to watch it live and tell me its not the most ridiculous farce currently costi g taxpayer a fortune
@Laura Farrell: in fairness the whole campaign for keeping it was for a reformed Seanad. We were lied to by most of irelands academics & political class as reform has yet to happen.
@Bennett blaster: it needs reform, particularly in the way that people are elected. The process needs to be open to everybody, and the option of making appointments taken away from government.
@Rochelle: can’t see the shinners going for that, despite its merit. They’re already drooling at the prospect of finding jobs for everyone who ever washed a gallon of diesel.
@Chris Mc: but at least it still exists, if enda had had his way it would have been abolished and the dail could have lost the run of themselves entirely. There was a very good reason he wanted it abolished and it wasn’t for our benefit which is why Ho made it a yes/no vote. Because in his arrogance he couldn’t conceive of the Irish population not trusting the little sleveen that he is.
@Gavin Tobin: Trinity Senators have given an outstanding service to Irish democracy and Politics since the foundation of the state. Ivana Bacik is but one example. (even though I do not agree with some of her extremist views) There appears to be a pressure group in this country determined to reduce the number of elected politicians, a development that would increase the power of unelected bureaucrats.
Favourite A Well Known Comical Stereotype AKA PRGuy
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Mar 31st 2022, 9:37 AM
The Seanad needs reform. Why do graduates from old universities get to elect senators, when nobody else gets a vote? It is not much better than the House of Lords. Copy the Aussie Senate – Maybe six senators from each province, or more depending on the population.
@A Well Known Comical Stereotype AKA PRGuy: Are you aware of how most Senators are elected in Ireland? Maybe that is where the greater issue lies, perhaps we should hold a poll on The Journal for all future government elections – that should give us all what we want and the bots could vote as often as they wish too. Vote early, vote often (and hey, we should be allowed to vote them out every other week too and vote for them to lose pension rights when they screw up, just like in the other real World). I think that we should be paying Senators a lot more money to start with, the theory being that the higher the salary, the better the candidate, hmph!
@A Well Known Comical Stereotype AKA PRGuy: a home for ex-TDs unable to get a vote these days and wannabe TDs who can’t get on the ticket. It’s an expensive chinwagging shop. It’s the same shop where senators claimed 250K in travel expenses while it was closed during the pandemic.
@Tom Hogarty: Timmy Dooley was rejected by the people of Clare in the 2020 GE, he was rejected again in the Seanad Elections, and despite these rejections, M.Martin still appointed him as a Senator. Absolute joke. Another example of keep voting until you give the right answer, and if that doesn’t work, we’ll appoint him anyway. Democracy FF style.
Favourite A Well Known Comical Stereotype AKA PRGuy
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Apr 1st 2022, 8:19 AM
@Thomas Harrington: LOL – I am quite happy with my modern degree from a newer Irish university. I don’t get to vote in the Seanad election, though. Keep crying.
The electorate made such an enormous and foolish mistake to keep it. Literally went out of their way to vote for a taxpayer trough for rejected politicians, those who failed to get elected or those who even failed to get on their parties ticket for the Dáil. All for a house that does absolutely nothing.
Only in Ireland would we go to such effort to reward and accept political failure while we struggle to provide even basic pay and conditions to nurses and teachers.
@Rochelle: as somebody correctly said, too many people deciding to “stick it to the government”, deluding themselves into believing they were voting for a non existent reform option that was never on the ballot. It should have been reformed.
That said, if people actually used their local council votes, its the councillors who elect most panels, and Taoiseach nominees is an indirect impact of the Dail vote, so it is indirectly democratic.The problem is the university panels which is profoundly undemocratic.
@Rochelle: You show that you know very little about our constitution or the role that the Seanad plays in it. Its not unusual as it is seen here all the time.
The reform is happening but there are a lot of changes that require constitutional changes and that takes time.
Read the history books and understand why it was put in place and why two house parliaments work .
@Gary Kearney: The referendum was 9 years ago and still no notable change in the way these elections and appointments are carried out, but of course you know that.
Those folks saying the Seanad provide some sort of “oversight” for the Dail need to read this https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/visit-and-learn/how-parliament-works/role-of-the-oireachtas/seanad-eireann/
Best the Seanad can do is recommend changes (which do not have to be adopted) and delay (but not completely stop) a bill. It’s basically a step up for those who just missed out on a Dail seat, and a few cushy years for a TD on the way out.
@Bill Quigley: Well, whatever you may consider it to be, it is very hard for the Candidates to get elected .Those oon the Panels that are elected by TDs and County Councilors have to travel the length and breath on the Country seeking votes .
@Eugene Comaskey: a bit of mileage & grovelling by buffoons like Craughwell for €70k a year plus expenses? Easy if you have bollox like Liam Lawlors neck.
If voting is confined to Trinity College graduates, how many of them live in the country. A lot of students come to Trinity for a few years to get their degree and leave afterwards. Do they get a vote while the majority of citizens resident in the State do not. Seems wrong.
@Philip Dwyer: Right but has she apologised for the Carlow school incident, tweet’s still up, I think that may just be where she is slipping up. People don’t forget these little details.
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