Former Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU) president Ian Marshall is set to become an Irish senator, after being nominated by An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. A vacancy exists after Denis Landy, a Labour senator, resigned for health reasons.

The main role of the Seanad is to revise and review legislation sent to it by Dáil Éireann.

Marshall will bring a Unionist perspective to the role. Living in a border area that could be adversely affected by Brexit, he has a strong background in farming and farming politics.

He is business development manager at the Institute of Global Food Security, which is part of Queen’s University Belfast.