Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’Brien has said that orders have been made directing that bye-elections be held to fill the vacancies in the Seanad caused by the resignations of senator Michael D’Arcy and senator Elisha McCallion.
Senator D’Arcy was elected from the Oireachtas sub-panel of the Agricultural Panel and senator McCallion was elected from the Oireachtas sub-panel of the Industrial and Commercial Panel at the Seanad General Election in March 2020.
There are eleven senators on the agricultural panel and nine senators on the industrial and commercial panel.
The Seanad returning officer will sit for the ruling on nominations on March 30, 2021. Ballot papers will be issued on April 7, 2021 and the polls will close at 11:00a.m on April 21, 2021.
The electorate for the bye-elections will be the members of Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann.
Among those hoping to secure the seat on the agricultural panel are Former Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine chairman Pat Deering and Former president of the Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU) Ian Marshall.
The current members of the panel are: Victor Boyhan; Denis O’Donovan; Paul Daly; Niall Blaney; Tim Lombard; Paddy Burke; Eugene Murphy; Pippa Hackett (also Minister of State); Annie Hoey; and Lynn Boylan.