24th Seanad

The 24th Seanad was in office from 2011 to 2016. An election to Seanad Éireann, the senate of the Oireachtas (Irish parliament), followed the 2011 general election to the 31st Dáil on 25 February.^[1][2] There are 60 seats in the Seanad: 43 were elected on five vocational panels by serving politicians, for which polling closed on 26 April; 6 were elected in two university constituencies, for which polling closed on 27 April; and 11 were nominated by the Taoiseach (Enda Kenny) on 20 May 2011.^[3] The 24th Seanad first met at Leinster House on 25 May 2011.^[4] It remained in office until the close of poll for the 25th Seanad in April 2016.

24th Seanad
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Overview
Legislative body	Seanad Éireann
Jurisdiction	Ireland
Meeting place	Leinster House
Term	25 May 2011 – 9 February 2016
Government	29th government of Ireland
Members	60
Cathaoirleach	Paddy Burke (FG)
Leas-Chathaoirleach	Denis O'Donovan (FF)
Leader of the Seanad	Maurice Cummins (FG)
Deputy leader of the Seanad	Ivana Bacik (Lab)
Leader of the Opposition	Darragh O'Brien (FF)
Sessions
1st 25 May 2011 – 27 July 2011 2nd 14 September 2011 – 20 July 2012 3rd 19 September 2012 – 24 July 2013 4th 20 August 2013 – 31 July 2014 5th 17 September 2014 – 21 July 2015 6th 23 September 2015 – 9 February 2016

Cathaoirleach

On 25 May 2011, Paddy Burke (FG) was elected as the new Cathaoirleach of the Seanad.^[5][6] On 1 June 2011, Denis O'Donovan (FF) was elected as Leas-Cathaoirleach.^[7]

Composition of the 24th Seanad

There are a total of 60 seats in the Seanad: 43 were elected on the vocational panels, 6 were elected by universities and 11 were nominated by the Taoiseach.

The following table shows the composition by party when the 24th Seanad first met on 25 May 2011.

Origin Party		Vocational panels					NUI[8]	DU	Nominated	Total
		Admin	Agri	Cult & Educ	Ind & Comm	Labour
	Fine Gael	3	4	2	4	5	0	0	1	19
	Fianna Fáil	2	4	2	3	3	0	0	0	14
	Labour	2	2	1	1	2	0	1	3	12
	Sinn Féin	0	1	0	1	1	0	0	0	3
	Independent	0	0	0	0	0	3	2	7	12
Total		7	11	5	9	11	3	3	11	60

Effect of changes

This table shows the political composition of the 24th Seanad at the start and the end of its term.

		May 2011	Feb. 2016
	Fine Gael	19	15
	Fianna Fáil	14	10
	Labour	12	11
	Sinn Féin	3	2
	Renua	—	1
	Social Democrats	—	1
	Independent	12	13
	Vacant	—	7
Total		60

List of senators

• Note: The entries for Senators who were elected or appointed to fill vacancies are shown in italics

Name	Panel	Party		Notes
Martin Conway	Administrative Panel		Fine Gael
Mark Daly	Administrative Panel		Fianna Fáil	Lost the Fianna Fáil party whip in December 2014.[9] Re-gained the party whip in February 2015.[10]
Michael W. D'Arcy	Administrative Panel		Fine Gael	Elected to Dáil at the 2016 general election
John Kelly	Administrative Panel		Labour
Denis Landy	Administrative Panel		Labour
Tom Sheahan	Administrative Panel		Fine Gael
Diarmuid Wilson	Administrative Panel		Fianna Fáil
Paul Bradford	Agricultural Panel		Fine Gael	Lost the Fine Gael party whip in July 2013. Joined Renua in March 2015.
Paddy Burke	Agricultural Panel		Fine Gael
Michael Comiskey	Agricultural Panel		Fine Gael
James Heffernan	Agricultural Panel		Labour	Lost the Labour Party whip in December 2012. Joined the Social Democrats in September 2015.
Paschal Mooney	Agricultural Panel		Fianna Fáil
Trevor Ó Clochartaigh	Agricultural Panel		Sinn Féin
Brian Ó Domhnaill	Agricultural Panel		Fianna Fáil
Denis O'Donovan	Agricultural Panel		Fianna Fáil
Susan O'Keeffe	Agricultural Panel		Labour
Pat O'Neill	Agricultural Panel		Fine Gael
Jim Walsh	Agricultural Panel		Fianna Fáil	Resigned the Fianna Fáil party whip in March 2015[11]
Thomas Byrne	Cultural and Educational Panel		Fianna Fáil	Elected to Dáil at the 2016 general election
Deirdre Clune	Cultural and Educational Panel		Fine Gael	Resigned from the Seanad in May 2014 after being elected to the European Parliament[12]
John Gilroy	Cultural and Educational Panel		Labour
Michael Mullins	Cultural and Educational Panel		Fine Gael
Labhrás Ó Murchú	Cultural and Educational Panel		Fianna Fáil
Gerard Craughwell	Cultural and Educational Panel		Independent	Elected in a by-election on 10 October 2014, replacing Deirdre Clune[13]
Colm Burke	Industrial and Commercial Panel		Fine Gael
Paul Coghlan	Industrial and Commercial Panel		Fine Gael
Jimmy Harte	Industrial and Commercial Panel		Labour	Resigned from the Seanad in September 2015[14]
Imelda Henry	Industrial and Commercial Panel		Fine Gael
Marc MacSharry	Industrial and Commercial Panel		Fianna Fáil	Elected to Dáil at the 2016 general election
Catherine Noone	Industrial and Commercial Panel		Fine Gael
Averil Power	Industrial and Commercial Panel		Fianna Fáil	Resigned from Fianna Fáil in May 2015[15]
Kathryn Reilly	Industrial and Commercial Panel		Sinn Féin
Mary White	Industrial and Commercial Panel		Fianna Fáil
Máiría Cahill	Industrial and Commercial Panel		Labour	Elected in a by-election on 13 November 2015, replacing Jimmy Harte.
Terry Brennan	Labour Panel		Fine Gael
David Cullinane	Labour Panel		Sinn Féin	Elected to Dáil at the 2016 general election
Maurice Cummins	Labour Panel		Fine Gael
Fidelma Healy Eames	Labour Panel		Fine Gael	Lost the Fine Gael party whip in July 2013
Cáit Keane	Labour Panel		Fine Gael
Terry Leyden	Labour Panel		Fianna Fáil
Marie Moloney	Labour Panel		Labour
Tony Mulcahy	Labour Panel		Fine Gael
Darragh O'Brien	Labour Panel		Fianna Fáil	Elected to Dáil at the 2016 general election
Ned O'Sullivan	Labour Panel		Fianna Fáil
John Whelan	Labour Panel		Labour
John Crown	National University of Ireland		Independent
Rónán Mullen	National University of Ireland		Independent
Feargal Quinn	National University of Ireland		Independent
Ivana Bacik	Dublin University		Labour
Sean Barrett	Dublin University		Independent
David Norris	Dublin University		Independent
Eamonn Coghlan	Nominated by the Taoiseach		Independent	Joined Fine Gael on 7 February 2012[16]
Jim D'Arcy	Nominated by the Taoiseach		Fine Gael
Aideen Hayden	Nominated by the Taoiseach		Labour
Lorraine Higgins	Nominated by the Taoiseach		Labour
Fiach Mac Conghail	Nominated by the Taoiseach		Independent
Martin McAleese	Nominated by the Taoiseach		Independent	Resigned from the Seanad on 5 February 2013[17]
Mary Moran	Nominated by the Taoiseach		Labour
Mary Ann O'Brien	Nominated by the Taoiseach		Independent
Marie-Louise O'Donnell	Nominated by the Taoiseach		Independent
Jillian van Turnhout	Nominated by the Taoiseach		Independent
Katherine Zappone	Nominated by the Taoiseach		Independent	Elected to Dáil at the 2016 general election
Hildegarde Naughton	Nominated by the Taoiseach		Fine Gael	Appointed on 19 July 2013, replacing Martin McAleese.[18] Elected to Dáil at the 2016 general election

Changes

Date	Panel	Loss		Gain		Note
7 February 2012	Nominated by the Taoiseach		Independent		Fine Gael	Eamonn Coghlan joins Fine Gael[16]
21 December 2012	Agricultural Panel		Labour		Independent	James Heffernan loses the parliamentary Labour Party whip
5 February 2013	Nominated by the Taoiseach		Independent			Martin McAleese resigns from the Seanad[17][19]
16 July 2013	Labour Panel		Fine Gael		Independent	Fidelma Healy Eames loses the Fine Gael party whip for voting against the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013[20]
16 July 2013	Agricultural Panel		Fine Gael		Independent	Paul Bradford loses the Fine Gael party whip for voting against the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013[20]
19 July 2013	Nominated by the Taoiseach				Fine Gael	Hildegarde Naughton appointed to replace Martin McAleese[18][21]
27 May 2014	Cultural and Educational Panel		Fine Gael			Deirdre Clune resigns from the Seanad after being elected to the European Parliament.[12]
10 October 2014	Cultural and Educational Panel				Independent	Gerard Craughwell wins by-election to replace Deirdre Clune[22][13][23]
21 December 2014	Administrative Panel		Fianna Fáil		Independent	Mark Daly loses the Fianna Fáil party whip on Water Services Bill[9]
3 February 2015	Administrative Panel		Independent		Fianna Fáil	Mark Daly re-gains the Fianna Fáil party whip[10]
13 March 2015	Agricultural Panel		Independent		Renua	Paul Bradford joins Renua on its foundation[24]
26 March 2015	Agricultural Panel		Fianna Fáil		Independent	Jim Walsh resigns the Fianna Fáil party whip in opposition to the Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015 and the Thirty-fourth Amendment of the Constitution (Marriage Equality) Bill 2015[11]
25 May 2015	Industrial and Commercial Panel		Fianna Fáil		Independent	Averil Power resigns from Fianna Fáil[15]
3 September 2015	Agricultural Panel		Independent		Social Democrats	James Heffernan joins the Social Democrats[25]
23 September 2015	Industrial and Commercial Panel		Labour			Jimmy Harte resigns from the Seanad[14][26]
13 November 2015	Industrial and Commercial Panel				Labour	Máiría Cahill elected in by-election[27][28]
26 February 2016	Cultural and Educational Panel		Fianna Fáil			Thomas Byrne elected to the 32nd Dáil
26 February 2016	Labour Panel		Sinn Féin			David Cullinane elected to the 32nd Dáil
26 February 2016	Administrative Panel		Fine Gael			Michael D'Arcy elected to the 32nd Dáil
26 February 2016	Industrial and Commercial Panel		Fianna Fáil			Marc MacSharry elected to the 32nd Dáil
26 February 2016	Nominated by the Taoiseach		Fine Gael			Hildegarde Naughton elected to the 32nd Dáil
26 February 2016	Labour Panel		Fianna Fáil			Darragh O'Brien elected to the 32nd Dáil
26 February 2016	Nominated by the Taoiseach		Independent			Katherine Zappone elected to the 32nd Dáil