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There are four seats now filled in Dún Laoghaire with Jennifer Carroll MacNeill taking the mantle of first TD elected to the new Dáil earlier on Saturday afternoon. Cormac Devlin (Fianna Fáil), Barry Ward (Fine Gael) and Richard Boyd-Barrett (People Before Profit) have managed to take the other three seats.
It’s all over here in Dún Laoghaire, where Richie Boyd Barrett and Cormac Devlin have both exceeded the quota after Shane O’Brien’s votes were distributed, and Barry Ward, who was 2,480 votes ahead of Hugo Mills of the Social Democrats, was deemed to be elected without reaching the quota. They all join Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, who had become the first candidate elected to the new Dáil about six hours ago.
Sinn Féin’s Shane O’Brien has been eliminated in Dún Laoghaire after receiving just 100 of Ossian Smyth’s transfers and being overtaken by Hugo Mills of the Social Democrats, who got 2,003. O’Brien’s departure from the race should be very good news for Richard Boyd Barrett, who got about 80 per cent of his transfers when he went out four years ago – enough to push the People Before Profit candidate well over the quota on that occasion.
Fifty per cent would be more than enough to get Boyd Barrett over the line this time, but if he somehow doesn’t make it, it’s hugely unlikely Hugo Mills will overtake him. The gap is 1,023.
The count centre is filling up, meanwhile, with the other remaining candidates and their supporters as the process approaches its end. Barry Ward of Fine Gael is receiving a lot of congratulations from well-wishers including MEP Regina Doherty. Barry Andrews has also been around the place showing support for Cormac Devlin. Both men also look set to be elected within the next hour.
The Green Party’s Ossian Smyth has been eliminated after the fifth count in Dún Laoghaire. The Minister of State picked up 886 transfers from the Labour Party’s Martha Fanning, taking him to 5,320, but it wasn’t enough to get him back ahead of Social Democrat, Hugo Mills, who is now on 5,486, and so he has officially lost his seat.
Barry Ward has picked up about 60 per cent of Jennifer Carroll MacNeill’s 551 surplus in Dún Laoghaire, and is just under 2,500 off joining his running mate in the next Dáil.
Carroll MacNeill said she was pleased to see her running mate in a strong position to take a second seat for the party in a constituency where Fine Gael is generally regarded as having let one slip through its fingers last time around.
“Two weeks ago we had a poll that showed me in a very, very, very, very strong position in the constituency. So we worked within our Fine Gael community to try to balance out that vote,” she said.
Ward finishing third on the first count, initially 2,797 off the quota, had she said shown the strategy had worked. Elsewhere, she added, the party was in contention for two seats in a number of constituencies and could be in for a better day than the exit poll might have suggested. “I think the best analysis I’ve seen is, ‘there’s a long way to go’.”
Regarding her own election, she said she was “really thrilled” to be elected again for the constituency and “really proud to be one of the small number of women who will be elected on first counts across the country”.
Fianna Fáil’s Cormac Devlin picked up 116 second preference from Carroll MacNeill, the only other candidate to gain in any way significantly.
Ossian Smyth picked up 23 transfers and still looks to have a huge fight on his hands to avoid being the constituency’s big loser this time around.
Michael O’Doherty (Independent) and Cathy Lynch (The Irish People) are now eliminated on 344 and 650 votes respectively.
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