Fine Gael’s Emer Currie was elected following the second count in Dublin West.

The 45-year-old senator is the daughter of Austin Currie, a leading figure in Northern Ireland’s civil rights movement, a co-founder of the SDLP and a TD for more than a decade. He was also Fine Gael’s presidential candidate in 1990. He died in 2021 aged 82.

Married with two daughters, Ms Currie studied history and politics at Queen’s University Belfast and previously worked as a business director with a marketing and communications company. She was elected to Fingal County Council in 2019 in the Castleknock ward and ran unsuccessfully ran in 2020 general election. In June 2020, Ms Currie was appointed a Senator as a Taoiseach’s nominee.

She is Fine Gael’s Seanad spokesperson for special education and inclusion and Northern Ireland and serves on the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement Committee. She is also chair of sovereign matters on the British Ireland Parliamentary Assembly.