Updated / Tuesday, 16 Feb 2021
08:26
Gerry Horkan will contest a seat on the Industrial and Commercial Panel
The Fianna Fáil parliamentary party has voted former Senator Gerry Horkan to be its candidate in one of the two upcoming Seanad by-elections.
Mr Horkan will contest a seat on the Industrial and Commercial Panel following the resignation of a Sinn Féin senator last year.
Elisha McCallion, a former Sinn Féin MP, resigned her seat in the Upper House after revelations that three Sinn Féin party offices incorrectly received payments from a Covid-19 grant scheme.
Overall 12 candidates contested the Fianna Fáil nomination, including former Cork South West TD Margaret Murphy O Mahony.
Former UFU president contests Seanad agri-panel seat
Former President of the Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU) Ian Marshall is contesting a seat in the Seanad on the Agricultural Panel in the 2021 by-election.
The seat became available after former Minister of State Michael D’Arcy resigned to take up a new role with the Irish Association of Investment Managers (IAIM) last year.
Marshall, from Co. Armagh, is contesting the seat as an independent candidate and has said that “it has never been more important that members elected to this panel have direct experience and capacity to fight for farming”.
Marshall’s background