2025 Seanad election

2025 Seanad election

29–30 January 2025
60 members of the Seanad Éireann 30 seats needed for a majority
Incumbent Leader of the Seanad Lisa Chambers Fianna Fáil

An indirect election to the 27th Seanad is scheduled to place in January 2025 after the 2024 general election to the 34th Dáil in November 2024. Seanad Éireann is the upper house of the Oireachtas, with Dáil Éireann as its lower house. There are 60 seats in the Seanad. Polls will close for six senators elected in two university constituencies on 29 January and for 43 senators elected on five vocational panels on 30 January; the remaining 11 senators are to be nominated by the Taoiseach, who is appointed next after the meeting of the 34th Dáil.

Background

The Constitution of Ireland provides that a Seanad election must take place within 90 days of the dissolution of the Dáil Éireann. The 33rd Dáil was dissolved on 8 November 2024. On 15 November 2024, the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Darragh O'Brien, signed an order for the Seanad elections, providing 29 January as the deadline for ballots for the vocational panels and 30 January as the deadline for ballots in the university constituencies.

Electoral system

There are 60 seats in the Seanad, each elected via one of three methods: direct election via voters who are university graduates, indirect election via a body of other previously elected politicians, or appointment by the Taoiseach.

All votes are cast by postal ballot, and are counted using the single transferable vote. Under this system, voters can rank candidates in order of their preference (1 as their first preference, 2 for second preference, and so on). In counting votes for the vocational panels, ballots are initially given a value of 1,000 to allow calculation of quotas where all ballots are distributed in the case of a surplus, rather than taking a representative sample as is done in counting votes for the university constituencies or Dáil elections. The quota for election is given as $\left({\frac {\text{total valid poll}}{{\text{seats}}+1}}\right)+1$.

University constituencies

Six senators are directly elected from two university constituencies: three from the National University constituency and three from the Dublin University (Trinity College Dublin) constituency. This will be the last general election from these constituencies. Under the Seanad Electoral (University Members) (Amendment) Act 2024, at the next Seanad general election held after 21 March 2025, they will be substituted by a new six-seat Higher Education constituency.

Vocational panels

Forty-three senators are indirectly elected by an electorate of elected politicians, consisting of members of the incoming 34th Dáil, members of the outgoing 26th Seanad, and currently sitting city and county councillors, who have ballots for each of the five vocational panels. The Seanad Returning Officer maintains a list of qualified nominating bodies for each panel. Candidates may be nominated by nominating bodies (outside sub-panel) or by members of the Oireachtas (inside sub-panel). In each vocational panel, there is a minimum number who must be elected from either the inside or the outside sub-panel. If the number of candidates nominated for each sub-panel does not exceed by two the maximum number which may be elected from that sub-panel, the Taoiseach shall nominate candidates to fill the deficiency.

Electors for the panels elect:

• Seven seats from the Administrative Panel, with a minimum of three from inside and outside sub-panels: Public administration and social services (including the voluntary sector).
• Eleven seats from the Agricultural Panel, with a minimum of four: Agriculture and the fisheries.
• Five seats from the Cultural and Educational Panel, with a minimum of two: Education, the arts, the Irish language and Irish culture and literature.
• Nine seats from the Industrial and Commercial Panel, with a minimum of three: Industry and commerce (including engineering and architecture).
• Eleven seats from the Labour Panel, with a minimum of four: Labour (organised or otherwise).

Appointment

The 11 nominated senators can only be appointed by the Taoiseach, who is appointed next after the reassembly of Dáil Éireann.

Members of the outgoing Seanad not seeking election

Date confirmed	Constituency	Departing senator	Party		Reason
30 November 2024	Industrial and Commercial Panel	Catherine Ardagh		Fianna Fáil	Elected to 34th Dáil
	Labour Panel	Jerry Buttimer		Fine Gael
	Cultural and Educational Panel	Malcolm Byrne		Fianna Fáil
	Industrial and Commercial Panel	Micheál Carrigy		Fine Gael
	Labour Panel	John Cummins		Fine Gael
	Nominated by the Taoiseach	Emer Currie		Fine Gael
	Nominated by the Taoiseach	Timmy Dooley		Fianna Fáil
	Nominated by the Taoiseach	Erin McGreehan		Fianna Fáil
	Labour Panel	Marie Sherlock		Labour
	Industrial and Commercial Panel	Mark Wall		Labour
	Industrial and Commercial Panel	Barry Ward		Fine Gael
18 December 2024	Nominated by the Taoiseach	Róisín Garvey		Green	Retirement
	Agricultural Panel	Pippa Hackett		Green
	Cultural and Educational Panel	John McGahon		Fine Gael
	Nominated by the Taoiseach	Vincent P. Martin		Green
	Labour Panel	Pauline O'Reilly		Green
	Cultural and Educational Panel	Fintan Warfield		Sinn Féin

Election process

Timetable of 2025 Seanad election

Deadline	Universities	Vocational Panel
Nominations close	6 December 2024	18 December 2024 ("outside" panel: nominating bodies — civic society groups) 31 December 2024 ("inside" panel: Oireachtas members)
Completion of panels	—	8 January 2025
Ballot papers distributed	30 December 2024	15 January 2025
Polls close	29 January 2025, 11 a.m.	30 January 2025, 11 a.m.

Results

^ *: Outgoing Senator

National University of Ireland

2025 Seanad election: National University

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1
	Independent	Sandra Adams
	Independent	Hilary Beirne
	Independent	Rónán Collins
	Green	Eva Dowling
	Independent	Alice-Mary Higgins
	Independent	Marie Keenan
	Independent	Mairead Kenny
	Independent	Dara Kilmartin
	Independent	Michael McDowell
	Human Dignity Alliance	Rónán Mullen
	Independent	Michael O'Doherty
	Independent	Linda O'Shea Farren
Quota:

Dublin University

2025 Seanad election: Dublin University

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1
	Independent	Abbas Ali O'Shea
	Independent	Derek Byrne
	Independent	Kevin Byrne
	Green	Hazel Chu
	Independent	Tom Clonan
	Independent	Laoise De Brún
	Independent	Hugo MacNeill
	Independent	Marcus Matthews
	Independent	Aubrey McCarthy
	Independent	Jack Mulcahy
	Social Democrats	Paul Mulville
	Independent	Ade Oluborode
	Labour	Sadhbh O'Neill
	Independent	Lynn Ruane
	Green	Ossian Smyth
	Independent	Katherine Zappone
Quota:

Administrative Panel

2025 Seanad election: Administrative Panel

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1
	Independent	Cathal Berry
	Independent	Joan Carthy
	Fine Gael	Martin Conway
	Fianna Fáil	Mark Daly
	Independent	Ann Marie Flanagan
	Fine Gael	Niamh Madden
	Independent	Richard Molloy
	Labour	Darragh Moriarty
	Fianna Fáil	Justin Moylan
	Fianna Fáil	Eugene Murphy
	Fianna Fáil	Fiona O'Loughlin
Quota:

Agricultural Panel

2025 Seanad election: Agricultural Panel

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1
	Fianna Fáil	Niall Blaney
	Independent	Victor Boyhan
	Fine Gael	Paraic Brady
	Fine Gael	Maria Byrne
	Fianna Fáil	Gillian Coughlan
	Fianna Fáil	Paul Daly
	Independent	Matt Dempsey
	Fine Gael	Aisling Dolan
	Fine Gael	Tim Durkan
	Labour	Angela Feeney
	Fianna Fáil	Breandán Fitzgerald
	Fianna Fáil	Pat Fitzpatrick
	Aontú	Becky Kealy
	Fianna Fáil	Cillian Keane
	Fianna Fáil	Niall Kelleher
	Fine Gael	Tim Lombard
	Fine Gael	Eileen Lynch
	Fine Gael	Gerry McMunn
	Independent	Eugene Murphy
	Fine Gael	P.J. Murphy
	Fianna Fáil	Paddy O'Rourke
	Fianna Fáil	Michael D. O'Shea
	Independent Ireland	Noel Thomas
Quota:

Cultural and Educational Panel

2025 Seanad election: Cultural and Educational Panel

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1
	Fianna Fáil	Lorraine Clifford-Lee
	Independent	Joe Conway
	Fianna Fáil	Teresa Costello
	Fianna Fáil	Shane Curley
	Independent	Angela Flynn
	Independent	Michelle Hayes
	Independent	Imran Khurshid
	Fine Gael	Seán Kyne
	Independent	Máirín McGrath
	Independent	Kensika Monshengwo
	Fianna Fáil	Gearóid Murphy
	Independent	Éanna Ní Lamhna
	Sinn Féin	Liadh Ní Riada
	Fine Gael	Shane O'Callaghan
	Fianna Fáil	Rob Power
	Independent	Sabina Purcell
	Fianna Fáil	Mikey Sheehy
Quota:

Industrial and Commercial Panel

2025 Seanad election: Industrial and Commercial Panel

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1
	Fine Gael	Declan Burgess
	Fine Gael	Danny Byrne
	Fianna Fáil	Ollie Crowe
	Fianna Fáil	Aidan Davitt
	Independent	Adrian Cummins
	Fianna Fáil	Kate Feeney
	Fianna Fáil	Mary Fitzpatrick
	Independent	Vanessa Foran
	Labour	Laura Harmon
	Social Democrats	Joan Hopkins
	Fianna Fáil	Gerry Horkan
	Fine Gael	Garret Kelleher
	Independent	Joe Kelly
	Independent	Sharon Keogan
	Independent	Donal Kissane
	Fianna Fáil	Sinéad Lucey Brennan
	Fine Gael	Tony Mulcahy
	Fianna Fáil	Michael Naughton
	Fine Gael	Linda Nelson Murray
	Independent	David Pratt
	Independent	Matt Shanahan
Quota:

Labour Panel

2025 Seanad election: Labour Panel

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1
	Labour	Nessa Cosgrove
	Independent	Gerard Craughwell
	Sinn Féin	Daithí Doolan
	Fianna Fáil	Robbie Gallagher
	Sinn Féin	Paul Gavan
	Fine Gael	Anna Grainger
	Fianna Fáil	Bernard Moynihan
	Fianna Fáil	Margaret Murphy O'Mahony
	Fine Gael	Joe O'Reilly
	Fianna Fáil	Michael Smyth
	Social Democrats	Patricia Stephenson
Quota: