Wilson seeks to serve as Seanad Cathaoirleach

Cavan Fianna Fáil Senator Diarmuid Wilson has confirmed he is seeking his party’s nomination to serve as Cathaoirleach of the 26th Seanad. He was returned to the Upper House in last week's Seanad Elections on the Administrative panel. He took the second seat (of seven) on that panel and came first on the Oireachtas sub-panel. Although aged just 54 years, Senator Wilson is one of the Upper House's longest serving members.
Speaking this week, Senator Wilson said:

Senator Wilson has been Fianna Fáil’s chief whip in the Seanad, both in government and opposition, since 2007. He has gained a cross party reputation for consensus building and co-operation. 
He is now the third longest serving member of the Seanad, behind Sen David Norris and former Cathaoirleach Sen Paddy Burke. Senator Wilson has served as acting Cathaoirleach of the Seanad on many occasions over the years.
Sen Wilson received an impressive 100 votes starting out and reached the quota on the 11th count, following the division of Mark Daly’s surplus vote.
The Cavan Senator is optimistic that this forthcoming term will see long-awaited reform of the upper house. It follows the publication of recommendations by an implementation group chaired by Michael McDowell last year.
“I’m confident there will be movement [on reform] this term, if this Seanad is formed first of all, and if it lasts any length of time,” Sen Wilson told The Anglo-Celt, noting the precariousness of coalition Government being formed in the Dáil.
He further stated his hope that the outcome of the Seventh Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland, supported by his uncle John Wilson, would be finally enacted. It would see all graduates in Ireland given a vote in Seanad elections, which at present is limited only to outgoing Senators, TDs, councillors, university graduates, and those specially selected by the Taoiseach.
“That could be done immediately,” says Sen Wilson, who also feels that a certain number of 60 available seats should be elected by the voting public, with counting to be done on the same day as General Elections.
If selected as Cathaoirleach, Senator Wilson promises to “preside impartially over the business and proceedings of the Seanad” and serve on the Council of State.
The Seanad Cathaoirleach also serves as chairperson of the Committee on Procedure and Privileges (Seanad Éireann) and fulfils several other function under the Electoral acts, as well as representing Ireland abroad at international meetings of parliamentarians, Conferences of Speakers of Parliament, the Council of Europe, European Parliament, and, along with the Ceann Comhairle co-host visits of foreign parliamentary delegations.
Born in Blenacup, Co Cavan in 1965, Diarmuid now lives in Cavan Town with his wife and four children. He was a member of Cavan County Council from 1999 to 2004 and was elected to Seanad Éireann in 2002. He has been re-elected at each and every Seanad election since. He is also a member of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly.

Seanad election result
Senator Wilson was among a number of familiar local faces across Cavan and Monaghan returned to the Seanad.
After five long days of counting, and with the incoming Taoiseach set to nominate the final 11 Senators, the fate of the remaining 49 representatives was sealed come the end of Friday last, April 3.
The end result saw Fianna Fáil fare better than the last Seanad election, now counting 16 Senators; while Fine Gael, who had 21, went down to 12, none of which were female representatives.
Also for Fianna Fáil, Monaghan’s Robbie Gallagher was re-elected to the Labour Panel.
The Fianna Fáil Seanad spokesperson on Education, who was an unsuccessful candidate for Cavan–Monaghan at the 2020 General Election, was first elected to the Seanad in 2016.
He was elected in the eighth count following the elimination of John Hanafin, having started out with 83 votes.
“I’m delighted that the councillors and Oireachtas members, in not just Cavan and Monaghan, but elsewhere around the country saw fit to return me to the Upper House. So I’m very proud and thankful of that fact,” said Sen Gallagher.
Fine Gael had been hoping to get three seats and ran just four candidates for the panel. Fianna Fáil hoped for the same level of success but had eight names in the field.
Also elected to the Labour Panel was Fine Gael’s Joe O’Reilly.
The former TD (2011-16) who is his party’s spokesperson on Foreign Affairs and Trade was first elected in 2016. He was returned in the 11th count on the transfer of the first parcel of Mary Seery-Kearney’s votes.
Sen O’Reilly, who had received 73 votes starting out, said the next Seanad term would be “challenging” for elected members for a variety of reasons.
As the country continues to jolt into “unknown territory” regarding the fallout of Coronavirus, he said: “None of us know where all of this will end up. That’s challenge number one. The second will be the enormous budgetary challenge after all this is said and done. We are going to have to kickstart economy again on a scale never seen before, and at the same time pay the bills. So it’s not going to be simple.”
On the Agricultural panel, meanwhile, one of the most hotly contested with 25 candidates for just 11 seats, neither Fianna Fáil’s Shane P O’Reilly, Cathaoirleach of Cavan County Council, or Seamus Coyle, Cathaoirleach of Monaghan Council, made the cut.
In Cllr O’Reilly’s case, he was eliminated in the 14th count, having started out with 40 votes, and polling 25 per cent more, after transfers, than his last attempt in 2016.
“The transfers didn’t come,” reflects Cllr O’Reilly in typical pragmatic fashion. “I was in the mix until the very end. There were only 18 counts. When I went out, I elected the three continuing Fianna Fail candidates - Blaney, Daly and Murphy - and if nothing else, I take a positive out of that and I am proud of being able to play a role in seeing those fine representatives be elected.”
Cllr Coyle was eliminated in the fifth count after getting 13 votes.
Another Cavan success story was the election of Sharon Keogan to the Industrial & Commercial panel in the 31st and final count, without reaching the quota, and all other candidates below her eliminated.
The Duleek-based county councillor and sister of local businessman and former Cavan County Manager Donal Keogan, started out with just 49 votes.
Ms Keogan was formerly a member of Fianna Fáil’s National Executive but left the party after failing to secure a nomination to contest the 2011 Dáil election, which she fought unsuccessfully as part of an alliance of Independent candidates known as New Vision.
She was elected to Meath County Council in 2014, and fought but failed to get elected in 2020 General Election.
Elsewhere, John Bosco Conama from Roscommon, failed to get elected to the Administrative Panel, and Linda O’Shea Farren from Dublin to the Industrial and Commercial Panel. Both have siblings living in County Cavan.