Seanad candidate opts out of Trinity contest

A TRINITY COLLEGE Seanad election candidate has withdrawn from the university contest, but will still run for the election on a vocational panel.

Francis Donnelly, a company director, will run on the labour vocational panel, with an electorate of about 1,000 people, compared to 53,583 for a Dublin University seat.

Mr Donnelly was nominated to the vocational panel by four Independent TDs: Shane Ross (Dublin South), Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow-East Carlow), Thomas Pringle (Donegal South-West) and Mick Wallace (Wexford).

He is the second confirmed candidate to opt out of the Trinity College contest but keep his name on the paper because the deadline for withdrawal of nominations had passed. Environmental scientist and marine biologist Karin Dubsky was forced to withdraw after a belated discovery that she was not an Irish citizen.

Dublin University is currently seeking legal advice about the validity, or otherwise, of a vote cast for these candidates.

Mr Donnelly, of Calverstown, Co Kildare, appealed to the university electorate, Trinity College graduates, not to vote for him but to give their vote to another candidate, Tony Williams, a solicitor specialising in media and employment law. There are now 18 candidates for the three Trinity seats.

A former Fine Gael member, Mr Donnelly left the party when he became involved in the Dáil election campaign for Stephen Donnelly (no relation) in Wicklow-East Carlow. He said after the success of their campaign: “We felt it would be good to have another Independent in the Seanad as well. I put in a nomination to Trinity just to have my name on some ballot paper,” he added, because its deadline was two weeks earlier than for the Oireachtas panels. He was then nominated by Independent TDs.

The Oireachtas, however, questioned his suitability to run for the labour panel because he was a company director. A labour vocational panel candidate requires knowledge and practical experience of labour. He was interviewed on Friday by the Oireachtas Seanad election returning officer and a panel of four others, including a judicial referee, before his candidacy was accepted.

Mr Donnelly said he had taken on the human resources function in his work and had a broad experience of employment law.

He is one of two Independent candidates on the vocational panels nominated by Oireachtas members. Seán Lyons was nominated by Finian McGrath (Dublin North-Central), Maureen O’Sullivan (Dublin Central) and Independent Senators Joe O’Toole and Ronán Mullen.

There are 60 members of the Seanad. Six are elected by Trinity and NUI graduates, 11 are appointed by the Taoiseach, and the remaining 43 on Oireachtas vocational panels are elected by the incoming Dáil, outgoing Seanad, and city and county councillors.