The final Seanad election for the Trinity panel is underway, with 16 candidates running for just three seats in a constituency naturally centred around higher education policy with a proud history of independent senators representing it.
Trinity News reached out to all candidates with the same set of questions, hoping to curate a public database of policies and opinions held by our prospective senators.
Below are the respondents’ backgrounds, views, and propositions, in alphabetical order.
Laoise de Brún.
Laoise de Brún, a Trinity law graduate, has maintained a close relationship to College through participating in the ‘Trinity Women Graduates Christmas Commons’ events, and hosting a Trinity Supper Club when she lived in London.
She founded The Countess, “a human rights and advocacy organisation to protect the rights of women, children, parents, and the LGB community”, which has been described as “anti-trans” by Gay Community News.
If elected, de Brún would priorities criminal law reform, particularly focusing on domestic violence, child abuse images and videos, and rape and consent laws.
She would also focus on child protection, saying that “no child should ‘age-out’ of early interventions or face years of delays for critical surgeries”.
When asked her view on the previous government, she focused on the two failed referenda that took place last year, for which she led a “grassroots No/No campaign”.
She added that the government “prioritised political agendas over people’s needs”, and that she “has consistently pushed back against ideologically-driven policy and law”.
She continues to campaign against hate crime legislation, and claims that the Gender Recognition Act “currently allows men who identify as women to be sent to female prisons in Ireland”.
To address the issue of lack of funding in the higher education sector, she proposes using “a percentage of the Apple Windfall” – more than €1.4 billion in tax that Apple was ordered to pay the Irish state this summer.
Derek Byrne.
Derek Byrne first ran for the Trinity Seanad panel in 2020, and holds two masters degrees from Trinity, in Ethnic and Racial Studies, and Drug and Alcohol Policy respectively. Further, he has been a member of the University Senate since 2018.
If elected, Byrne names lobbying for “safe spaces for men and members of the LGBTQ+ community who are victims of Domestic Violence” as his top one of his top policy priorities.
He also advocates in his manifesto for “a state funded student accommodation option” and “will push for policies which remove financial barriers to higher education for marginalised groups”.
Byrne notes that “the last government did a fairly good job at keeping the economy steady but they fell down on on important social issues such as housing and health care”.
He pledges to hold “weekly clinics in Trinity for students to come to me personally and discuss any issues or difficulties they may have”, adding that his “office in Seanad Éireann will always be open to students and graduates as a priority”.
In considering the recent developments in Seanad reform, Byrne disagrees with reforming the existing Trinity Seanad panel to become a broader third-level education panel, saying that he doesn’t believe it will work.
“We are in danger of having a super list of candidates at the next election,” he notes.
Kevin Byrne.
Kevin Byrne (no relation to Derek Byrne) is a researcher and lecturer at University College Dublin’s School of Medicine, where he specialises in genomics. Being “one of the first from [his] school to attend Trinity”, he is a “proud graduate with degrees in Theoretical Physics and Genetics”.
One of Byrne’s primary objectives is to improve the quality of life in Dublin.
“Today, our beautiful capital city is in trouble,” Byrne states, “neglected by our political system and with a weak local government.” He wishes to change this with the implementation of a directly elected Mayor, similar to recent reforms in Limerick City.
Additionally, as a senator he would focus on “the insecurity in funding and employment in our higher education sector”, citing his experiences as both an undergraduate and postgraduate student, and staff member in the field.
His view on the last government is nuanced. He credits the three coalition partners with strong leadership throughout COVID and Brexit, and gives particular compliments to the Green Party for “their willingness to sacrifice their own political careers to achieve policy goals”.
However, Byrne notes that “on crucial infrastructure like housing, water, electricity and transport there wasn’t enough delivery by the outgoing government”, while describing the new Programme for Government as “vague and non-committal”.
He states that he will remain independent on every vote he takes in the Seanad, and goes further in saying “the non-partisan character and history of the DU constituency has been an important feature of the constituency which I will honor”.
When asked what he believes are the issues that most affect Trinity students, he lists the lack of affordable accommodation, and the stress produced by its consequences such as long distance commutes.
Tom Clonan.
Tom Clonan is a sitting Trinity Senator, after winning the 2022 by-election to fill Ivana Bacik’s recently vacated seat upon her election to Dáil Éireann. Having received a BA in Education in 1989, he is most known for his advocacy in disability rights, and expertise in military affairs.
Clonan served in the Irish Army as both a Captain and peace keeper, stationed for many years in Lebanon. Now, he often writes for The Irish Times and TheJournal.ie about the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
Clonan lists his work on disability and carer rights, and the building of social and affordable housing as “an absolute priority” if re-elected; while naming gender-based violence as a “profound and persistent problem” in Ireland as a further issue he wishes to tackle.
An independent Senator who was in opposition last session, he plans to maintain this position if re-elected, saying that he “will be very vocal in reminding the new govt of their responsibilities and duty of care to the Irish people.”
He has submitted “several amendments” to the recent Higher Education Bill, as well as the Research and Innovation Bill, and adds that he ‘will continue to support higher and sustained core funding” to third level education institutions.
He advocates for further Seanad reform, and wants to see the implementation of the Manning Report for “wider, deeper Seanad reform”.
Marcus Matthews.
Marcus Matthews says that he “had the option to attend TCD but at the time [he] decided to instead attend UCD”, citing UCD’s broader module selection. He says that his connection to Trinity has strengthened since his university days, due to his work, “which centres on innovation and commercialisation”.
His “top priority if elected would be housing and cost-of-living”, he says, adding that he wants to “achieve serious change” on issues including climate, agriculture and transport policies.
Matthews believes the outgoing government “totally failed to make progress on any of the big issues”, citing “pathetically insignificant policies” proposed by the Green Party, such as “cycle lanes [and] carbon taxes that rural people who have no alternatives”.
For this, he is running as an independent candidate and will evaluate his support for government legislation on a policy-by-policy basis.
Considering issues relating to third-level education, he advocates for a college curriculum that is “more inclusive of different social science disciplines, and ultimately more transparent”.
Additionally, when considering issues pertaining to student life, Matthews highlighted “the night economy and the collapse of various types of social establishments, including the closure of the nightclub industry” as issues affecting students today.
Paul Mulville.
Paul Mulville is a Fingal county councillor for the Social Democrats, and a Trinity graduate in Irish and German. His father, Frank Mulville, is a lecturer in the School of Social Work and Social Policy.
A Gaeilgeoir, he plans to promote and support the Irish language “by delivering a significant portion of my contributions as Gaeilge”.
He is a staunch supporter of the Occupied Territories Bill, which would ban all trade with Israeli firms active in Gaza and the West Bank, which has also been recently pulled from government policy.
If elected, he would also focus his support on “strengthening reproductive rights”, and “pushing for an increase in youth work services”.
When considering the current state of third-level education, Mulville believes that “we need to move away from the commercialisation of third-level education”.
“As a senator, I would seek to work with colleagues to introduce a private members bill to ban the sale of housing to vulture funds to help alleviate the housing crisis”, he shared.
Sadhbh O’Neill.
Sadhbh O’Neill is a member of the Labour Party, and studied Philosophy and English at Trinity from 1988 to 1993, taking a year off books after she was elected to Dublin City Council while a student. She works in climate research and advocacy, with academic posts at both UCD and DCU.
Naturally, she centres the ongoing climate crisis in her policy focuses, approaching the topic with a nuanced position away from a “technocratic solution,” saying that “the way we live, work and move around […] must be deeply democratic and tailored to address social injustice and inequality.”
O’Neill “will push for a student accommodation strategy to increase availability”, crediting her experience as a university lecturer for her understanding of “how commuting, casual work, and housing pressures impact students’ studies”.
When asked if she plans on supporting policies from the incoming Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael coalition government, she responded: “Very likely I will not.”
She takes issue with the recent reforms to the Trinity Seanad panel, saying that “the government chose the most minimalist route to implementing” change, and that “as someone with a modest income, I cannot see how it would be possible for me to turn an effective election campaign with an electorate of circa half a million voters”.
Katherine Zappone.
Katherine Zappone is a former independent senator, and served from 2016 to 2020 as Minister for Children and Youth Affairs in the Dáil. She was also a lecturer in the School of Hebrew, Biblical and Theological studies during the 1980s and 90s.
She was born in the US and became an Irish citizen in 1995, and alongside her wife Ann Louise, was a major force in the early movement for marriage equality in Ireland.
She lists working to “secure the future and accessibility of Higher Education and Research” as her “top priority as a senator”. Though she recognises that the incoming governments pledges to carry this out, citing her own experience in government, she says that “this promise will require ongoing pressure and advocacy to ensure that it happens”
“I will bring a human rights a progressive lens to each of the economic and social policies in the next government’s programme […] I will not support those policies that are blatantly neo-liberal”, she said.
She names “the affordability and accessibility of degrees, the appalling lack of student accommodation, and the investment in student supports” as issues most pressing for current students, as well as “affordable housing and access to good jobs” for recent graduates.
The electorate of the Trinity Seanad panel, which comprises all Trinity graduates and scholars, must return their ballot before January 29, at 11am via postal voting.