Prendergast picks up new Seanad seat for Labour

The Labour Party is celebrating Seanad success this morning after picking up a new seat in the labour panel election.

Phil Prendergast of Tipperary joins Senator Michael McCarthy from Cork in the upper house of the Oireachtas for the first time.

Fianna Fáil's Don Lydon lost his seat, but Donie Cassidy was successful, helping Fianna Fáil to secure five seats on the panel.

With 27 seats now filled on the vocational panels, Fianna Fáil has 13, Fine Gael nine, Labour four and Sinn Féin one.

In the university elections, Senators David Norris and Shane Ross have both been re-elected to represent Trinity College, where Ivan Bacik is expected to pick up the third seat when counting resumes later today.

The three NUI seats also remain to be filled.