Irish government to hold on to majority in upper house

Dublin - The Irish government coalition was expected to hang on to control of the upper house, or Seanad, after a better-than- expected performance for the largest Fianna Fail (FF) party in this week's elections. FF won 22 seats, Fine Gael 14, Labour six, Sinn Fein one and there were six independents in the 49 elected seats after vote-counting ended late Thursday. Thanks to a pre-election pact between Labour and Sinn Fein, it was the first time that a member of the Irish Republican party won a Seanad seat. Prime Minister Bertie Ahern was now expected to appoint a further 11 senators next week. It was expected that he would appoint two senators each from his coalition partners in the Green Party and Progressive Democrats (PDs), The Irish Times newspaper reported Friday. Ahern's appointments were expected to give the governing parties a three-seat majority in the 60-seat body. In the outgoing Seanad, FF held 28 seats and the PDs five. FG had 15 seats and its allied Labour Party had five. Independents held seven seats. The Seanad is not directly elected: 11 senators are appointed by the prime minister, six are elected by graduates of Trinity College Dublin and the National University of Ireland, and 43 are elected by county councillors and members of the government. The Seanad operates as an advisory and review body that can delay legislation from the lower house, or Dail, with which it disagrees. It does not have the power to veto legislation. © 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

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