Senate by-election presents political opportunity to former Mayo TD
A Political View by The Tallyman
A former Mayo Fine Gael TD, senator, county and town councillor has been handed an opportunity of returning to public life.
Michelle Mulherin is seeking to secure her party's nomination to contest a Senate by-election which is expected to take place early in the new year.
While there are currently two vacancies in the Upper House, she has her eyes focused on the one vacated on the agricultural panel by Michael D'Arcy in September.
As D'Arcy was a Fine Gael senator, agreement has more or less been reached by the three coalition leaders that Fine Gael should choose his replacement.
While former Limerick senator Maria Byrne and former Carlow TD Pat Deering are understood to be the frontrunners at this point, the prospects of Mulherin cannot be dismissed.
She received 5,435 first preference votes in the general election in the Mayo constituency earlier this year and 3,329 helped to elect new Castlebar TD Alan Dillon during the distribution of her transfers at the seventh count.
This effectively ensured that Mayo was one of the few constituencies in the country to return two Fine Gael TDs, Dillon joining outgoing minister Michael Ring, whose surplus also helped that cause with 625 of his transfers going to Dillon in the second count.
With Ring unlikely to be in the general election race next time, Fine Gael has big decisions to be made in respect of Mayo.
Does the party back Mulherin now in the hope that returning her to An Seanad will improve its chances of retaining two seats or does it go in a different direction as in giving Carlow an Oireachtas representative?
The members of an interview panel selected by the party's national executive is mulling over this question, among others.
The panel is expected to interview all of the interested parties before making a recommendation to the party leader, Tanáiste Leo Varadkar.
With the backing of the three government parties, the Fine Gael nominee is not expected to lose.
Mulherin served in the senate from 2016 to 2020, having been nominated by former Taoiseach Enda Kenny. She previously served as a TD from 2011 to 2016.
She certainly has no lack of Oireachtas experience. Neither is she short of supporters and friends right across the party, such is her warm nature.
It will be interesting to see how this story pans out, especially so as the members of the interviewing panel are being given such responsibility in this matter.
A complicating factor is that former Independent Senator Ian Marshall has indicated he will be standing in the by-election.
Marshall, a Co. Armagh farmer of unionist background, said he hoped he would be considered an asset given the island of Ireland faces unique challenges from Brexit, Covid-19 and CAP reform.
Earlier this year, Micheál Martin decided not to make Marshall one of his Taoiseach nominees to the Seanad.
There is now a possibility that Marshall could also contest the other by-election created by the resignation of Sinn Féin Senator Elisha McCallion in October.
But he is more likely to oppose the Fine Gael nominee for the D'Arcy vacancy, according to reports.
So, for a number of reasons, Mulherin's bid for a senatorship is far from straight-forward.