There have been 24 nominations made to contest the 11 seats for the Seanad's Agricultural Panel.

Among them are former Irish Farmers Journal editor and chair of the Agricultural Trust Matt Dempsey, who has been nominated by the Royal Dublin Society (RDS).

Outgoing senators Niall Blaney and Paul Daly (Fianna Fáil), Tim Lombard and Maria Byrne (Fine Gael) and Victor Boyhan (Independent) are seeking a return to the upper house of the Oireachtas.

Pippa Hackett, who was elected to the Seanad from the agricultural panel in 2020 and served as Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture sitting at cabinet as a super junior minister, is not running for a seat.

Roscommon senator Eugene Murphy, who left Fianna Fáil and joined Independent Ireland in advance of the general election, also seeks reelection. His new party colleague Noel Thomas has also been nominated, as has Aontú's Becky Kealy.

Focus

Nominations from outside nomination panels have closed as of 18 December. Now the focus turns to the inside nominations, where candidates are put forward by politicians from the new Dáil or the outgoing Seanad, with four politicians endorsement required for a single nomination. Each TD and outgoing senator has only one nomination in their gift.

Voting will take place across the second half of January by post.

The Agricultural Panel is one of five vocational panels accounting for 43 seats in all.

Those eligible to vote are the 949 county and city councillors, the 60 outgoing senators and the 174 TDs elected to the new Dail.

A further six are voted for by university graduates. The Taoiseach nominates the final 11 of the 60 Seanad seats.