Mark Daly hopes to leave Seanad Cathaoirleach role with upper chamber ‘better than he found it’

With less than four months to go until he leaves the role of Cathaoirleach of the Seanad, Fianna Fáil’s Mark Daly says “in anything that you do, you try to leave it better than you found it”.

In a little-known part of the Coalition deal, he will depart the office to make way for a Fine Gael Senator at the same time that Taoiseach Micheál Martin switches roles with Tánaiste Leo Varadkar.

Names thought to be in the mix to take the chair in the upper house include the Leas Cathaoirleach Joe O’Reilly and fellow Senators Jerry Buttimer and Regina Doherty.

But that’s a matter for Fine Gael and not something Mr Daly will speculate on, saying simply: “I’ve been honoured to hold the position for the period that I have.”

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One of his final roles will be to preside over the centenary celebration of the first sitting of the Seanad on December 11th, 1922. It comes after a year of commemoration that has honoured the minority voices, women, and people from Northern Ireland who have served as Senators over the past 100 years.

Kerry-based Mr Daly says he tried to use his time as Cathaoirleach to bring in Seanad reforms that were within his power to effect. Key among these is a new job for the Seanad in scrutinising European Union laws being adopted by the Republic and their implementation. Mr Daly says that until now EU directives on everything from environmental issues to healthcare regulations have been approved by Cabinet and signed into law without scrutiny by TDs and Senators. He believes the oversight role — to begin in the coming Seanad term — could save the taxpayer “tens of millions” in fines imposed by the EU for missed deadlines.

He says the Seanad won’t be blocking EU laws but that it will be collaborative and an opportunity for politicians to say, “look there’s concerns”.

Irish unity

Separately, a public consultation on the constitutional future of the island of Ireland —an area of great interest for Mr Daly — is to be completed before his term in office ends.

Young people from both sides of the Border and international experts on topics like German reunification will be among contributors to Seanad sessions in the autumn.

Mr Daly won’t be tied down on when he thinks a border poll on Irish unity should take place but says: “I think the lesson of Brexit is the following — you don’t hold a referendum without the proper preparation and planning.”

He spent much time during the Covid-19 pandemic engaging with politicians in the United States over Zoom.

US secretary of labor Marty Walsh — a former Mayor of Boston — is to address the Seanad next month, and, along with Democratic congressman Richie Neal, Mr Daly has been building the American-Irish state legislators caucus.

In March 2021 there were just four Irish caucuses in state-level politics: New York, Maryland, Pennsylvania and California. Now there are groups in all 50 states.

Mr Daly accompanied some politicians from Oklahoma and Montana on a visit to Dublin and Belfast last week.

The goal of developing the state-level organisations is to instil an interest in Irish issues in the next generation of American politicians. Mr Daly expects hundreds of US politicians will visit Ireland next August when there will be an event marking 25 years of the Belfast Agreement coinciding with the Notre Dame versus Navy American Football game in the Aviva stadium.

On whether he will seek to win a Dáil seat in Kerry in the next general election he says: “In politics you never say never ... we’ll see how it goes like. There’s a long way between here and the next election.”