Ian Marshall (politician)

Marshall is a dairy farmer in the agrifood sector. He was president of the Ulster Farmers' Union (UFU) from 2014 to 2016.[7][8][9] In 2015 he invested in the controversial Renewable Heat Incentive scheme and later complained that its critics made no distinction between legitimate investors and those who misused the scheme.[10] In February 2017 the UFU successfully challenged a 2012 reduction by DARD in Marshall's CAP grant, provoked by nitrate pollution detected by NIEA near his farm in 2010–2011, on the basis that the pollution was unintentional.[11] In August 2017, Marshall was appointed Business Development Manager at the Institute for Global Food Security in Queen's University Belfast.[12][13]

Marshall was elected to the 25th Seanad on 27 April 2018 in a by-election for the Agricultural Panel.[14] The vacancy was caused by the resignation of Denis Landy. He was approached to stand by then Taoiseach and Fine Gael leader Leo Varadkar; his candidacy was also supported by Sinn Féin.[13][14] He had never been a member of a political party and sat as an Independent.[15] He was the first unionist member elected to the Oireachtas since the 1930s.[16]

He lost his seat at the 2020 Seanad election. He was an unsuccessful candidate at the 2021 Seanad by-election to the Agricultural Panel[17] which followed the resignation of Fine Gael Senator Michael W. D'Arcy.[18] He was again backed by Sinn Féin, but not by Fine Gael.[19] In The Irish Times, columnist Fintan O'Toole lamented that "it was much more important for the Government parties to vote for one of their own than to place a single liberal unionist from Armagh (Ian Marshall) in the Oireachtas."[20]

Marshall was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2022 New Year Honours for public and political service.[21][22]

On 27 July 2021, the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) announced that Marshall had joined the party.[23] Marshall commented that the UUP offered "a moderate, considerate position" and a "move on from identity politics to focus on things that are a priority for most people – the economy, jobs, healthcare, housing and building good relationships across this island and between our two islands".[24][25]

Marshall stood unsuccessfully as the UUP candidate for West Tyrone in the 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election, polling 1,876 votes, 4.1% of the total.