John Dardis (born 25 July 1945) is a former Irish Progressive Democrats politician who served as a senator from 1989 to 2007. He is a retired farmer and former agricultural journalist. Early and personal life Dardis was educated at the Dominican College in Newbridge, County Kildare and at University College Dublin, where he graduated with a degree in Agricultural Science. He is married to Beatrice Lane, and has one son and two daughters. He lives in Newbridge. Political career Dardis served in Seanad Éireann from 1989 until he retired in 2007, being nominated by the Taoiseach in 1989, 1997 and 2002, and elected by the Agricultural Panel in 1992 (this was facilitated by an electoral pact with Democratic Left). He was also a member of Kildare County Council for twelve years, representing the Kildare town electoral area from the 1991 local elections until he stood down from the council in 2003 on the abolition of the dual mandate under the Local Government Act 2001. He stood for election to Dáil Éireann for the Kildare constituency at the 1992, but was unsuccessful. After the division of the constituency, he stood again in the Kildare South constituency at the 1997 general election and again in 2002, but was defeated on both occasions. He also stood for election to the European Parliament in the Leinster constituency at the 1989 and 1994 elections. Salmon drift-nets In October 2005, Dardis launched a Progressive Democrats (PD) policy document which advocated a ban on the use of drift nets to catch salmon in Irish waters, and called for "fair and appropriate" compensation for licence-holders. The policy was agreed at the party's conference in Galway. The PDs' policy contradicted that of the coalition government (with Fianna Fáil) of which they were part, and came days before a report of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Marine and Natural Resources recommended similar measures. The party was accused of "political opportunism" by the Green Party of only taking an interest in the issue in advance of a Government policy shift, and Tommy Broughan of the Labour Party said ""The PDs had seven years to do something about this and they did nothing. Now they are taking a sudden interest in the issue on the eve of our report coming out." In a letter to The Irish Times, Dardis – who is a keen angler, – replied that the party had