Bradley Bytes – a sort of political column by Dara Bradley

Seán Kyne told this newspaper last December he was leaving politics for good. But like a boomerang, he’s back – with a plum job in the Seanad.

The Moycullen man dropped the bombshell before the result of the General Election count was declared, but when it was clear he was not going to win a seat in Galway West to serve a third term in Dáil Éireann.

Emotions were raw in the count centre at Galway Lawn Tennis Club, yet Kyne’s reaction appeared calm, considered.

And the sitting senator was unequivocal. He had lost the election and he was not putting his family through another bruising campaign. The 49-year-old also ruled out becoming a senator again.

“I’m not saying I wouldn’t get elected to the Seanad if I ran, but I’m not going to run for the Seanad if I’m not going to run in a General Election again. If I won a Seanad seat, then you’d be under pressure to run again for the General Election and so I’m not going to do that,” he told the Tribune.

Far from an off-the-cuff remark, it was a considered position. Kyne said something similar on local radio, í mBearla agus as Gaeilge to RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta, and Galway Bay FM. Famous last words.

Kyne did come under pressure. Firstly, from party supporters in Conamara. County Councillors Eileen Mannion in Clifden and Pádraig Joe Joe Mac an Iomaire in Indreabhán pushed for Kyne to reconsider, because of concerns that nobody living in Conamara was elected a TD.

Kyne resisted initially, until he took a phone call from party leader, Simon Harris, who made him an offer he could not refuse. The then Taoiseach persuaded him to run in the Seanad elections and if returned, he would be made leader of the Upper House.

And that’s what has happened. Weeks after he was re-elected on the Cultural and Educational Panel by an electorate of Councillors and Oireachtas members, Kyne has been appointed leader of the Seanad by Taoiseach Micheál Martin, on Harris’s recommendation.

The Oireachtas press office told us the Leader of the Seanad has a broadly similar role to the Chief Whip of the Dáil. Kyne will schedule, propose and manage Government business in the Seanad, including moving the day’s order of business.

As well as prestige – particularly in America where Senators and senate leaders are incorrectly perceived as more powerful than TDs – Kyne gets tasty remuneration: an additional allowance of €25,977 on top of his Seanad salary of €79,614 plus expenses.

There’s bad news for Kyne’s would-be successors on the Fine Gael General Election ticket next time out – Councillors Eddie Hoare, Clodagh Higgins and Shane Forde.

They can now disregard his post-election pledge that he was not going to try to become a TD again and must assume he will be a candidate again in the next General Election alongside Minister Hildegarde Naughton.

Pictured: Seanad Leader Seán Kyne in the Count Centre after the General Election when he didn’t win a Dáil seat and stated he wouldn’t run for the upper house. He came under pressure to do so, partly because Conamara had no TD following the election.