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2021 Seanad By-elections
Two by-elections were held for vacancies in Seanad Éireann on Wednesday, 21 April 2021. The vacancies were caused by the resignations of Fine Gael's Michael W. D'Arcy from the Agricultural Panel in September 2020 to become chief executive of the Irish Association of Institute Management; and of Sinn Féin's Elisha McCallion from the Industrial and Commercial Panel in October 2020 due to a COVID-19 grants controversy. Fine Gael's Maria Byrne was elected to the Agricultural Panel, and Fianna Fáil's Gerry Horkan to the Industrial and Commercial Panel. Both were elected on the first count. Electoral system In vacancies in the Vocational panels, the electorate in by-elections consists of Oireachtas members only, which will consist of 160 Teachta Dála, TDs and 58 Senators. To be nominated, a candidate must have the signature of nine TDs and/or Senators. Ballot papers were issued on 7 April and the polls closed at 11 am on 21 April. All votes were cast by postal ballot, and were cou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
By-election
A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections. A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumbent dying or resigning, or when the incumbent becomes ineligible to continue in office (because of a recall, election or appointment to a prohibited dual mandate, criminal conviction, or failure to maintain a minimum attendance), or when an election is invalidated by voting irregularities. In some cases a vacancy may be filled without a by-election or the office may be left vacant. Origins The procedure for filling a vacant seat in the House of Commons of England was developed during the Reformation Parliament of the 16th century by Thomas Cromwell; previously a seat had remained empty upon the death of a member. Cromwell de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Teachta Dála
A Teachta Dála ( , ; plural ), abbreviated as TD (plural ''TDanna'' in Irish, TDs in English), is a member of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas (the Irish Parliament). It is the equivalent of terms such as ''Member of Parliament'' (MP) or '' Member of Congress'' used in other countries. The official translation of the term is "Deputy to the Dáil", although a more literal translation is "Assembly Delegate". Overview For electoral purposes, the Republic of Ireland is divided into areas known as constituencies, each of which elects three, four, or five TDs. Under the Constitution, every 20,000 to 30,000 people must be represented by at least one TD. A candidate to become a TD must be an Irish citizen and over 21 years of age. Members of the judiciary, the Garda Síochána, and the Defence Forces are disqualified from membership of the Dáil. Until the 31st Dáil (2011–2016), the number of TDs had increased to 166. The 2016 general election elected 158 TD ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eamon Ryan
Eamon Michael Ryan (born 28 July 1963) is an Irish Green Party politician who has served as Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications and Minister for Transport since June 2020 and Leader of the Green Party since May 2011. He has been a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin Bay South constituency since 2016, and previously from 2002 to 2011 for the Dublin South constituency. He previously served as Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources from 2007 to 2011. Early and personal life Ryan was born in Dublin in 1963 and raised in Dundrum, where he continues to live with his family. He was educated at Gonzaga College and University College Dublin, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce degree. He was manager of the UCD Marketing Development Programme from 1985 to 1986, and following three years of emigration and unemployment in 1989, he founded Cycling Safaris, a company which organises cycling holidays in Ireland and Europe. He married the aut ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Independent Politician
An independent or non-partisan politician is a politician not affiliated with any political party or bureaucratic association. There are numerous reasons why someone may stand for office as an independent. Some politicians have political views that do not align with the platforms of any political party, and therefore choose not to affiliate with them. Some independent politicians may be associated with a party, perhaps as former members of it, or else have views that align with it, but choose not to stand in its name, or are unable to do so because the party in question has selected another candidate. Others may belong to or support a political party at the national level but believe they should not formally represent it (and thus be subject to its policies) at another level. In running for public office, independents sometimes choose to form a party or alliance with other independents, and may formally register their party or alliance. Even where the word "independent" is used, s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hazel Chu
Hazel Chu (born 3 November 1980) is an Irish Green Party politician who has been a member of Dublin City Council since May 2019. She was elected Cathaoirleach (Chairperson) of the Irish Green Party in December 2019, and was succeeded by Senator Pauline O'Reilly in December 2021. She was the first Irish-born person of Chinese descent elected to political office on the island of Ireland. She served as Lord Mayor of Dublin from 2020 to 2021, and in doing so became the first person of Chinese ethnicity to be mayor of a European capital. Family Chu's parents, Stella Choi Yau-fan and David Chu Tak-Leung, from villages in the New Territories of Hong Kong, both immigrated, individually, to Ireland in the 1970s. They met while working in the kitchen of a restaurant in Dublin and subsequently married, launching a takeaway chip van and other enterprises. Hazel Chu Chung-fai was born at the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin in November 1980. She was raised initially in the suburb of Firhouse, Sou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Green Party (Ireland)
The Green Party ( ga, Comhaontas Glas, , Green Alliance) is a green political party that operates in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. As other like-minded Green parties, it has eco-socialist/green left and more moderate factions. It holds a pro-European stance. It was founded as the Ecology Party of Ireland in 1981 by Dublin teacher Christopher Fettes. The party became the Green Alliance in 1983 and adopted its current English language name in 1987 while the Irish name was kept unchanged. The party leader is Eamon Ryan, and the deputy leader is Catherine Martin and the Cathoirleach (chairperson) is Pauline O'Reilly. Green Party candidates have been elected to most levels of representation: local government (in both the Republic and Northern Ireland), Dáil Éireann, the Northern Ireland Assembly, and the European Parliament. The Green Party first entered the Dáil in 1989. It has participated in the Irish government twice, from 2007 to 2011 as junior partner in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Social Democrats (Ireland)
The Social Democrats () are a centre-left, social-democratic political party in Ireland. The party was launched on 15 July 2015 by three independent Teachtaí Dála, Catherine Murphy, and Róisín Shortall, and Stephen Donnelly, and is led by Murphy and Shortall. It promotes the Nordic model and pro-European views. History The Social Democrats was established with a co-leadership arrangement between its three founding members. Róisín Shortall is a former Labour Party TD and former Minister of State at the Department of Health. She resigned from the role and from Labour in September 2012, citing lack of support and the lack of an explanation from then-Minister for Health James Reilly concerning his controversial decision to locate a new primary care centre in his own constituency. Catherine Murphy was successively a member of the Workers' Party, Democratic Left and the Labour Party before being elected as an independent TD in 2005. Stephen Donnelly first entered poli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online news coverage. The service maintains 50 foreign news bureaus with more than 250 correspondents around the world. Deborah Turness has been the CEO of news and current affairs since September 2022. In 2019, it was reported in an Ofcom report that the BBC spent £136m on news during the period April 2018 to March 2019. BBC News' domestic, global and online news divisions are housed within the largest live newsroom in Europe, in Broadcasting House in central London. Parliamentary coverage is produced and broadcast from studios in London. Through BBC English Regions, the BBC also has regional centres across England and national news c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billy Lawless
Billy Lawless (born 4 July 1951) is an Irish former Independent politician and businessman who served as a Senator from 2016 to 2020, after being nominated by the Taoiseach. Lawless is a native of Rahoon, County Galway. In the 1980s, he was Chair of Fine Gael in the Galway West constituency and stood unsuccessfully for Galway City Council in 1991. He emigrated to Chicago in 1998, having always harboured plans to open a business in the U.S. he made the decision after his daughter received a rowing scholarship to Boston University. He currently owns four restaurants in the Chicago area, employing 260 people, and is a board member and co-founder of the Illinois Business Immigration Coalition (IBIC) and Chair of Chicago Celts for Immigration Reform. Lawless has been credited with helping the cause of Irish immigrants and undocumented Irish in America, and was made Freeman of Galway in 2015 for these efforts. He was conferred with an Honorary Doctorate by NUI Galway in June 2015. On ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ian Marshall (politician)
Ian James Marshall (born 1968) is a farmer and Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) politician from Markethill, County Armagh, in Northern Ireland. He is from a unionist background and campaigned against Brexit. He was elected to Seanad Éireann in Dublin in 2018, but lost his seat in the 2020 Seanad election. Farming Marshall is a dairy farmer in the agrifood sector. He was president of the Ulster Farmers' Union (UFU) from 2014 to 2016. In 2015 he invested in the controversial Renewable Heat Incentive scheme and later complained that its critics made no distinction between legitimate investors and those who misused the scheme. In February 2017 the UFU successfully challenged a 2012 reduction by DARD in Marshall's CAP grant, provoked by nitrate pollution detected by NIEA near his farm in 2010–2011, on the basis that the pollution was unintentional. In August 2017, Marshall was appointed Business Development Manager at the Institute for Global Food Security in Queen's University ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iris Oifigiúil
''Iris Oifigiúil'' (; "''Official Journal''") is the official gazette of the Government of Ireland. It replaced ''The Dublin Gazette'', the gazette of the Dublin Castle administration, on 31 January 1922. ''The Belfast Gazette'' was established for the same purpose in the newly created Northern Ireland on 7 June 1921. ''Iris Oifigiúil'' is sometimes referred to as the ''Irish State Gazette'' in English and has been issued twice weekly on Tuesdays and Fridays since 1922. Prima facie evidence on notices of government business are published in the newspaper; these include orders, rules, and proclamations. The paper is published as a hard copy by the Office of Public Works. Since 2002, most contents are also published in the online edition. An exception is notices of naturalization: these are required under the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956 but online publication was stopped in 2016 on data privacy grounds. At the same time, the search functionality was removed fro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Darragh O'Brien
Darragh O'Brien (born 8 July 1974) is an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who has served as Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage since June 2020. He has been a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin Fingal constituency since the 2016 general election, and previously from 2007 to 2011 for the Dublin North constituency. He previously served as a Senator for the Labour Panel from 2011 to 2016. His brother Eoghan O'Brien is a Fingal County Councillor, representing the Howth-Malahide local electoral area. Personal life He was born and raised in Malahide, County Dublin, where he is an active member of St. Sylvesters GAA club, Malahide United F.C. and Malahide Rugby Club. As a child, O'Brien attended Pope John Paul II National Catholic School and then Malahide Community School (Pobalscoil Íosa). He is one of six children. Before entering politics, he worked in the Pensions sector with Friends First Assurance Company. He lives in Malahide with his wife and daughter. Politica ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
