In January 2011, at a political meeting at the Silver Tassie Hotel in Letterkenny, Blaney disclosed that he and his wife had agreed to separate amicably.

At the 2007 general election, Blaney again won the third seat in the constituency, after Fine Gael's Joe McHugh and Fianna Fáil's Jim McDaid.

In a surprise statement on 30 January 2011, just hours before a Fianna Fáil selection convention for his constituency, Blaney announced that he would not be contesting the 2011 general election.

Following his involvement in the Oireachtas Golf Society scandal in August 2020, Blaney was one of six senators who lost the party whip as punishment for their actions.

At the 5 February 2024 selection convention in Mullingar, Blaney was one of three candidates—along with Laois–Offaly TD Barry Cowen and senator Lisa Chambers from Mayo—seeking the Fianna Fáil nomination for the 2024 European Parliament election in the Midlands–North-West constituency.

This was described as a "surprise move" by the party,[9] which had not had an MEP in the constituency since Pat "the Cope" Gallagher lost his seat at the 2014 European Parliament election.

[10] Hours before the launch of Fianna Fáil's European election manifesto on 24 May, Blaney issued a press release alleging that the party had gone into "panic mode" over its three-candidate strategy and claimed it was "intent on throwing two of them overboard and settling for one seat.

"[12] Blaney later said he had a "robust" private discussion with Martin following the press conference but continued to accuse the party of showing favouritism to Cowen and Chambers, claiming that Fianna Fáil was "giving up on Connaught and the border counties where we need representation most".