Davitt increases vote once again

Seanad Éireann elections

Senator Aidan Davitt has been re-elected to Seanad Éireann on the Industrial and Commercial panel, increasing his first preference vote significantly in the process.

Speaking to the Westmeath Examiner, Aidan declared that he is “delighted” to have been re-elected.

“The numbers speak for themselves – 29 candidates running for nine seats on the Industrial and Commercial Panel,” he said, and he is overjoyed to have been one of the successful candidates.

“I am delighted I got 90 first preference votes, the highest vote any Fianna Fáil candidate has got on that panel in a long time,” he said. He took the second seat with “the backing of my party, colleagues and county councillors”.

Senator Davitt increased his vote from 38 the first time he ran in 2016 and 78 the last time to 90 in this election. He acknowledged the support he got from friends, family and colleagues – “a lot of people have an input into helping you get elected”, he said.

He will have been nine years in the Seanad on March 1 next and this is his third term. Prior to that, he served for five years on Mullingar Town Council and six on Westmeath County Council.

Aidan explained that business in the Seanad is based around legislation. “You are trying to pass legislation and different amendments are coming before you and you have to talk to different group representatives, list to businesspeople and try to get legislation through.

“That is your main purpose, to make sure legislation works for the people,” he added.

Businesspeople would be Aidan’s “main concern” and his main priority now is getting the new Property Registrations Bill through. “I have been working on it with Marc MacSharry and I will pick up and progress that,” he said.

The new bill would ensure that all documentation was in order before a property was sold.

“Heretofore, that was not the case. This would be putting the horse in front of the cart. It is a logical piece of legislation that would streamline property sales,” Senator Davitt said.

As an auctioneer, that would be an area of significant importance to Aidan Davitt. He is managing director of Sherry FitzGerald Davitt & Davitt, having started his career working with his uncle, Pat Davitt, some 30 years ago in Castlepollard. Since then, they have expanded into Mullingar and Kinnegad and they now employ 20 staff.

Aidan was delighted that his family and friends were with him on the day of his re-election, among them his wife Gillian, their daughters Cliodhna and Ella, his father Liam, brother James and his sister Aoife Davitt, who is a member of Westmeath County Council.

Unfortunately, his mother Margo was unable to attend on the day, Senator Davitt told the Examiner.