European election results: Midlands-North-West and Ireland South counts continue

European Election Count

Two counts continue with Dublin having elected its four MEPs

Midlands-North-West: Sitting MEP Luke ‘Ming Flananagan (Ind) is now less than 10,000 off the quota after strong transfers from Saoirse McHugh.

Next in Midlands-North-West is former jockey Nina Carberry (Fine Gael) is just ahead of her running mate Maria Walsh with Barry Cowen (Fianna Fáil) in fourth place with Ciaran Mullooly looking strong for the last seat. The results in detail here

Ireland South: Seán Kelly (FG) was the first MEP elected in the constituency with Billy Kelleher (FG) set to retain his seat. The battle for the last three seats in Ireland South has come down to a contest between Kathleen Funchion (SF), Michael McNamara (Ind), Mick Wallace (Ind) and Cynthia Ní Mhurchú (FF). Grace O’Sullivan (Green) is back in the mix after getting 8,000 Social Democrat transfers. The results are here

Local election count

All local council seats have all been filled, with Fianna Fáil becoming the largest party at 248 seats. The others are as follows: Fine Gael 245;, Labour 46, Social Democrats 35; Greens 23; People Before Profit Solidarity 13, Aontú 8; Independents 186; Others 33.

Derek Blighe transfers

Barry Roche reports from Ireland South: Eliminated anti-immigration candidate Derek Blighe of the Ireland First party who got 25,000 votes believes the bulk of his transfers following his elimination on Wednesday night will go to Independent Michael McNamara

McNamara, a former Labour TD for Clare, who has been critical of the government’s handling of immigration, is in contention for one of the last three seats and Blighe reckons – and hopes – that he may help him take the seat when his 38,635 papers are distributed later today.

“I think they’ll go to McNamara – hopefully they will – I heard some say Kelleher was getting No 2s, if he does, there’s nothing I can do about it, that’s down to the voters, that’s not down to me so quite possibly they will though I’d say quite a decent share of them will be non-transferable.”

Counting is restarting at Nemo Rangers GAA club in Cork with the distribution of Blighe’s papers with McNamara, Sinn Fein’s Kathleen Funcheon, Independent4Change Mick Wallace and Fianna Fail’s Cynthia Ni Mhurchu the most credible contenders for the last three seats.

Gibney says she lost €20,000 in MEP bid

Cormac McQuinn reports that Social Democrats candidate Sinéad Gibney has said she personally lost €20,000 in her unsuccessful bid for a European Parliament seat and sold her car to part-fund her election bid. Ms Gibney fell short of the threshold for reimbursement of campaign expenses by just 440 votes.

Should Labour and the Social Democrats merge?

That is the question that has resurfaced again after the success of both small parties in the local elections over the weekend, writes Sarah Burns. The Social Democrats almost doubled their local authority representation, going from 19 to 35 seats, most notably becoming the second largest party on Dublin City Council.

The Labour Party will also be pleased with its performance – retaining 56 seats, down one on its 2019 showing – but very much above expectations, and mostly notably, securing an MEP seat in Dublin.

Green Party rounds on Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil

In our overnight lead, the political team write the Green Party’s hopes of salvaging sitting MEP’s Grace O’Sullivan’s seat in Ireland South were fading. The Greens’ disappointment led to further criticism of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil from Green deputy leader Catherine Martin on Wednesday.

She warned warned the climate crisis “is way too important to toy around with” during elections.

Asked about attacks on her party from other Coalition parties during the campaign Ms Martin, the Green deputy leader, replied: “I can’t control the other political parties and what they might do.