Seanad General Election 2025

It's not really a general election, and it's not very democratic!

The Oireachtas website has a very good explainer about the upcoming Seanad elections. They, unfortunately, describe it as a “general election” It is nothing, barely even resembling a general election or even democratic!

Seanad elections have to take place within 90 days of the dissolution of the Dáil. This means that the new Dáil will have assembled before the Seanad elections can take place. The Seanad, the so-called “upper house” of our Oireachtas legislative chambers, begins operations with a charmingly indirect election process that might seem bewildering to most but is essentially a deeply undemocratic institution, but still, it provides a fascinating glimpse into the intricacies of Irish political culture.

The Seanad is made up of 60 members. Unlike the Dáil, members of the Seanad are not directly elected by plumbers, cleaners, self-made owners of SMEs, farmers or the wife who stays at home to raise the kids while the hubby toils in his factory job to make ends meet.

How do you become a Senator?

• 11 are nominated by the Taoiseach;
• 43 are elected from vocational panels;
• 6 are elected from University panels.

To become a Senator, you must be:
• A citizen of Ireland
• Over 21 years old

You’re not allowed to be a Senator if you’re
• Serving a prison sentence of more than 6 months;
• A person of unsound mind. (That rules out journalists, political scientists, political nerds, and just about anyone with an unhealthy interest in the obscurities of Irish politics)
• A judge;
• A senior official of the European Union;
• A civil servant;
• A member of An Garda Síochána or a full-time member of the Defence Forces.

The electrician living across the road who has 20 people working for him doesn’t get to vote in the Seanad Elections because he’s just an electrician without a third-level degree from University College Dublin (UCD), University College Cork (UCC), National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG), Maynooth University (MU) or Trinity College. These university panels elected 6 Senators between them. There are two separate university panels:

• Graduates of the University of Dublin (Trinity College);

• Graduates of the National University of Ireland (NUI).

Each University panel elects 3 Senators. Once you have a 3rd-level qualification, even if it is a qualification in studying the mating of habits of snails under a bridge in Ballymagash and have never encountered a Senator in the wild, you get a vote. It would be fair to say if you’re thinking that the so-called “upper house” of the Oireachtas has a bit of a democratic deficit, you’d not be wrong. Some might argue that having universities elect 6 Senators allows for a higher level of intellectual discourse in the Seanad. These university Senators are not bound by party politics, which means they can contribute more independently and thoughtfully to discussions in the chamber. That still doesn’t make it any more democratic or representative of society. If missing out on your civic duty because your degree isn’t from the right 3rd level institution seems elitist, it’s because it is.

Vocational panels are responsible for the election of 43 out of 60 Senators. This is outlined in Article 18 of the Constitution. There are five different panels, which are listed below:
• Cultural and educational panel (5);
• Agricultural panel (11);
• Labour panel (11);
• Industrial and commercial panel (9);
• Administrative panel (7).

The Seanad returning officer maintains a list of nominating bodies for each of the five panels. A nominating body is an organisation whose work or members is relevant to a panel. Organisations can only be registered on one panel. You can read the full list of who these August nominating bodies are here. They contain luminary organisations such as The Native Irish Honey Bee Society, The Drama League of Ireland, The Caravan, Camping and Mobile Home Society, and my favourite, The Hardware Association Ireland.

Each panel corresponds to a different theme. Candidates are required to have a certain level of knowledge and experience related to their panel, anyone who has watched a Seanad debate might be a little suspicious of said expertise. Each panel will elect between 5 and 11 members, and candidates are only permitted to run for election on one panel.

If it sounds complicated, it’s because it is. Nor is it very democratic or egalitarian for a self-professed Republic.

The only people who can vote in these electoral panels are

• Members of the incoming Dáil;
• Members of the outgoing Seanad;
• City and County Councillors;

Not a single seat is filled by the plebeians via direct vote. Instead, the arrangement is more akin to an exclusive club where the criteria for entry are both mysterious and manifold to the ordinary local and general election voter. You would be forgiven for thinking that those within the system circle the wagons to choose their cohort.

Finally, you have the Taoiseach's 11 nominees. These nominees, particularly in the era of multi-party coalitions, will always be picked for strategic reasons, constituencies where a party may not have TD, or with an eye to future elections where a sitting Senator will be groomed to run as a candidate in a General Election. The coalition parties will divide the number of seats the Taoiseach will nominate between them. Sometimes, there will be a token Senator appointed representing a cultural minority part of Irish society.

The Seanad doesn’t wield the same power as its lower house sibling, Dáil Éireann, but occasionally, it offers sage advice and expert analysis. The more cynically astute observer will assert that its powers are highly constrained, as it mostly reviews rather than originates legislation. It does occasionally cause a constitutional ruckus by highlighting deficiencies or constitutional ambiguity in legislation. But it cannot significantly challenge Dáil Éireann, raising questions about its effectiveness and whether it truly represents diverse voices as was its intended purpose when initially set up.

Yet, like any venerable institution, talk of reform and abolition has floated through the air like an old tune everyone hums but never quite finishes. In 2013, the Irish voter toyed with the idea of pulling the plug altogether yet decided the show must go on. The electorate rejected the 2013 referendum to abolish the Seanad, with 51.7% voting to keep it and 48.3% in favour of abolishing it.

Seanad Éireann is like that quirky old clock in your grandmother’s house that chimes at odd intervals, not entirely reliable, but somehow endearing enough to keep around, if only because dismantling it seems like too much of a constitutional effort. Perhaps one day, it'll tick in tune with the times, but for now, it still retains its unique character in Irish political folklore. No matter how undemocratic the institution it is.