Members of the 26th Seanad
There are 60 members of the 26th Seanad Éireann, the upper house of the Oireachtas (Irish parliament). Of these, 49 were elected on a restricted franchise, polls closing on 30–31 March 2020; subsequently the remaining 11 members were nominated by the Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, on 27 June 2020. The government has a clear majority (40 to 20) in the Seanad. Of the 60 members, twenty-four (40%) are women, and thirty (50%) are first-time Senators. 33 members (55%) of the 26th Seanad were unsuccessful candidates at the 2020 general election, 10 of those (17 %) being outgoing TDs who failed to get re-elected. In total 41 members (68%) of the 26th Seanad had contested general elections in the past, while 15 (25%) were former TDs. Eileen Flynn is the first Irish Traveller to be a member of the Seanad. Electoral system. There are 60 seats in the Seanad: 43 Senators are elected by the Vocational panels, six elected by the two University constituencies, and eleven are nominated by the Taoiseach. Three seats are elected by graduates of the four colleges of the National University of Ireland (University College Cork, University College Dublin, National University  of Ireland, Galway and Maynooth University) and three seats are elected by graduates of University of Dublin (as Trinity College Dublin is the sole constituent college, this is often referred to as the Trinity College constituency). Article 18.8 of the Constitution requires that an election for Seanad Éireann must take place not later than 90 days after a dissolution of the Dáil. On 21 January, Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government Eoghan Murphy signed the orders for the Seanad election. Composition of the 26th Seanad. Government parties denoted with bullets ()