Aby-election was held for a vacancy in theCultural and Educational Panel ofSeanad Éireann on 20 October 2014. The vacancy was caused by the election ofFine Gael'sDeirdre Cluneto the European Parliament. It was won byIndependent candidateGerard Craughwell.
In vacancies in thevocational panels, the electorate in by-elections consists ofOireachtas members only. To be nominated, a candidate required the signature of nine TDs or Senators. The electorate to fill the casual vacancy was the 225 members of theOireachtas.
All votes were cast by postal ballot, and were counted using thesingle transferable vote. Under this system, voters can rank candidates in order of their preference, 1 as their first preference, 2 for second preference, and so on.
Fine Gael SenatorDeirdre Clune was elected to theEuropean Parliament for theSouth constituency at the2014 European Parliament election on 23 May. This created a vacancy in theCultural and Educational Panel.
Gerard Craughwell put himself forward in August 2014 as anIndependent candidate, initially a symbolic gesture to protest against the usual practice of the government using its parliamentary majority to secure the election of its chosen candidate.[1] Craughwell secured nomination from members of thetechnical group andFianna Fáil.[2]
On 12 September 2014, theMinister for Arts, Heritage and the GaeltachtHeather Humphreys wrote to John McNulty, a businessman who had run unsuccessfully forDonegal County Council in the2014 local elections, offering him a place on the board of theIrish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA); he accepted on 15 September, and before nominations closed on 18 September Fine Gael nominated him for the by-election to fill the Seanad vacancy.[3][4][5] Opposition politicians protested that McNulty's IMMA appointment was abusive and had been made solely to bolster his eligibility for the Cultural and Educational Panel; Humphreys took responsibility for the appointment and refused to state whether others had pressed her to make it.[6] McNulty resigned from the IMMA board on 25 September, stating its rules prohibited board members from running for election.[7]
On 30 September, McNulty withdrew his name from consideration in the by-election, stating that "to contest the election would be an ongoing distraction from the critical work of Government"; however, as the period to formally withdraw had elapsed, his name remained on the ballot paper and he requested that electors not vote for him.[8] Many electors voted for McNulty regardless, with Craughwell winning the election held on 10 October.[9]
| Party | Candidate | FPv% | Count | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | ||||
| Independent | Gerard Craughwell | 45.1 | 87 | 98 | |
| Fine Gael | John McNulty | 43.5 | 84 | 85 | |
| Sinn Féin | Catherine Seeley | 11.4 | 22 | ||
| Electorate: 223 Valid: 193 Quota: 96.501 Turnout: 86.5% | |||||
On 23 February 2016, in a televised debate before the2016 general election,Enda Kenny appeared to concede for the first time that it was his decision to nominate McNulty to IMMA, later backtracking somewhat.[10]
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