The leaders of the Labour Party and Social Democrats have made separate bids to bring left-wing parties together to see if they can get behind a single candidate in the upcoming Seanad byelections. Labour leader Ivana Bacik wrote to Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns, and Roderic O’Gorman of the Green Party, on Tuesday evening to see if they would attend a meeting to discuss the possibility of an agreed candidate.On Wednesday, Cairns wrote to the leaders of a wider group of left-wing parties – including Bacik and O’Gorman, but also the leaders of Sinn Féin and People Before Profit-Solidarity – proposing a meeting to agree on a unity candidate. The vacancy in the Seanad arises from the election of former Fine Gael Senator Seán Kyne to the Dáil in the Galway West byelection and must be held within six months.In seeking a meeting with the Social Democrats and the Green Party, Bacik suggested the possibility of an “agreed Left-Green woman candidate”. She said she was “conscious of the need to ensure stronger representation of women, especially now that the proportion of women elected to the Oireachtas has reduced even further, as of the weekend”.Kyne won the seat left vacant by former left-wing Independent TD Catherine Connolly when she won the presidential election last year. Asked if Bacik would be suggesting candidate names at the proposed meeting, a Labour spokeswoman said it was “too soon to say”. As to why Bacik did not also invite Sinn Féin and People Before Profit-Solidarity, the spokeswoman said: “Ivana has consistently said since before [the] 2024 general election that she wants to form a common platform on the left with the Green Party and the Social Democrats.”Shane Ross: Why politicians won't fix RTÉ - or let it fail Listen | 43:28The spokeswoman confirmed that Bacik had agreed to attend the wider meeting proposed by Cairns. A Green Party spokeswoman said that O’Gorman “will have a conversation with Ivana and Holly” and would propose his party’s Dublin Central candidate, Cllr Janet Horner, as the agreed Seanad byelection candidate.Horner came third in last week’s Dáil byelection in Dublin Central. A Social Democrats spokesman said that Cairns’s efforts to organise a wider meeting of left-wing parties came after she met a member of the Seanad Civil Engagement Group of left-wing Senators about the issue on Tuesday.Carins “undertook to contact other left leaders after that”, he said.Political Editor Pat Leahy on findings from the Dublin Central and Galway West byelections. “Given that the voting pool is extremely small for the Seanad byelection, and the need to try to maximise the chances of a progressive candidate winning the seat, Holly Cairns has already written to the leaders of all of the parties on the Left – Sinn Féin, Labour, the Green Party and PBP-S – to suggest a meeting so they can agree [on] a unity candidate.”Asked if Cairns would attend the smaller meeting proposed by Bacik, the spokesman replied: “Holly believes it makes sense for all of the leaders of left parties to meet together to discuss whether an agreed candidate can be nominated. She is waiting to hear back from those leaders to schedule a meeting.”