A former Clare TD who is in the running for the upcoming Seanad elections says he would like to see the upper house of the Oireachtas opened up to a public vote.
Mountshannon’s Timmy Dooley is back on the campaign trail after being nominated by the Restaurants Association of Ireland for a Seanad Éireann seat and will now lobby county councillors in an effort to be deemed elected.
His is one of at least four Clare names on the ballot – fellow Fianna Fáil member and prominent Lahinch hotelier Michael Vaughan, disability rights activist Anne-Marie Flanagan and sitting Senator Martin Conway are all also running.
Dooley, who served as a Senator in the Seanad from 2002 to 2007 before becoming a TD until he lost his seat earlier this month, is advocating Seanad reform:
