Former Minister for Children, Integration, Equality and Youth, Katherine Zappone, looks unlikely to get elected as counting continues in the Seanad election. On the seventh count, Ms Zappone has secured 5.27 per cent of the vote (1,001 votes) as counting continues.
On the Trinity panel, incumbent Senator Lynn Ruane is leading the polls after the final tally, on 21.45 per cent (3,974 votes). Fellow Senator Tom Clonan is in second position on 19.75 per cent (3,626 votes). Battling it out for a seat, entrepreneur Aubrey McCarthy is in third place at present on 10.36 per cent (1,926 votes) while former Ireland rugby international Hugo MacNeill is sitting on 9.21 per cent in the tallies (1,792 votes).
Sixteen candidates were nominated for the three Trinity College Seanad seats up for grabs. Alongside Ms Zappone, Councillor Hazel Chu was in the running, along with Independent Senator Tom Clonan, Senator Lynn Ruane, former Green party Minister Ossian Smyth. The Countess founder, women;s rights campaigner Laoise de Brún also ran for a seat, alongside Abbas Ali O’Shea, Derek Byrne, Kevin Byrne, Hugo MacNeill, Marcus Matthews, Aubrey McCarthy, John (Jack) Mulcahy, Paul Mulville, Ade Oluborode, and Sadhbh O’Neill.
There are a total of six university seats, with counting also underway at the National University of Ireland, which elects three senators.Polls closed at 11 am on Wednesday for both the NUI and Dublin University (Trinity College) panels while counting starts on Thursday for the five vocational panels when voting closes at 11am. There are a total of 12 candidates on the NUI panel.
On the seventh count, Hazel Chu has 1,578 votes (7.95 per cent), Katherine Zappone has 1,001 votes (5.27 per cent), while Laoise de Brún has 640 votes. Ossian Smyth has 1,439 votes on 7.63 per cent.
With an estimated 18,000 ballots the Trinity quota to get elected is expected to be around 4,500 votes.
It comes as NUI Senator Michael McDowell became the first Senator to be elected, with a partial tally showing he had gained somewhere in the region of 31 per cent of the vote. Senator McDowell gained 11,390 first preference votes leaving a surplus of 2,361, which will be distributed today.
Taking to X, he wrote: “I am very grateful to have been re-elected to Seanad Éireann tonight on the first count with 11390 first preferences. Thank you to @NUIMerrionSq voters for returning me to the 27th Seanad. My surplus of 2361 votes will be distributed from 10am tomorrow.”
Senator Rónán Mullen is in second place at present on 21 per cent while Senator Alive Mary Higgins on 18 per cent. Green Party Cllr Eva Dowling is in fourth place on 9 per cent. Cllr Dowling is followed by consultant geriatrician Rónán Collins on 8 per cent.
The NUI electorate is 112,832 with an estimated turnout of 36,000 or close to 32 per cent while Trinity estimates turnout at 23 per cent to 24 per cent of the 76,000 people who are eligible to vote.