FF and FG set to carve up two open Seanad seats
FIANNA FÁIL and Fine Gael are planning a Seanad carveup of the two seats that have been left vacant in the wake of the resignations of Sinn Féin senator Elisha McCallion and Fine Gael’s Michael D’Arcy.
The chief casualty of the departure of Ms McCallion is likely to be the former Northern Unionist representative Ian Marshall.
Previously, after the resignation of Michael
D’Arcy, in the absence of a deal between FF and FG on a single candidate, the popular Unionist was emerging as the perfect compromise candidate.
There had already been some surprise over the failure of Micheál Martin or Leo Varadkar to nominate Mr Marshall as the Unionist representative when it came to the traditional 11 Taoiseach’s nominees.
According to one Government source : ‘The Greens put paid to that with all their demands for extra seats for their own.’
It had been expected that the lacuna could have been ended by Mr D’Arcy’s departure.
Although the seat was a Fine Gael party one, a source said, ‘the initial view of Fine Gael was that running their candidate had too much potential for mischief’.
A FG minister said: ‘There is no way FF would lend us their votes to see a FG candidate through. We cannot trust them.’
But the second Seanad vacancy, which was generated by the resignation of Ms McCallion, has created a new dynamic.
One FF source said: ‘The addition of a second Seanad seat means that the parties are not in competition.’
We are, they said, ‘now in a situation of mutually assured destruction where each party can gain an extra seat if they don’t shaft each other’.
Such a scenario may have an unfortunate denouement for Mr Marshall. But one FG source added: ‘Neither leader is in the position to toss away a seat.’
And Fianna Fáil’s capacity to support Mr Marshall is compromised by the party’s relationship with the SDLP.