Counting to resume in European and council elections in Ireland

Counting is set to resume in the Republic of Ireland for the European elections.

A recount is underway for three seats in the local elections with only three left to declare.

Nine of the 14 seats in the European Parliament have not been filled.

No candidates have been elected in Midlands-North-West, where five MEP sits are held, after 10 counts with Independent outgoing MEP Luke Ming Flanagan leading with 81,663 votes.

The quota for those seats stands at just over 113,000.

Sinn Féin’s Michelle Gildernew sits 12,500 off the current candidate in fifth place, Independent candidate Ciaran Mullhooly.

Ms Gildernew does not believe she will catch up to Ms Mullhooly.

But the party is hopeful that transfers from their other candidate Chris McManus, and boosts from other eliminations will help take the final seat.

Also in the running Fine Gael’s Nina Carberry, Fianna Fáil’s Barry Cowen and Fine Gael’s Maria Walsh are set to take the other three seats with around 2,500 votes between the highest and lowest candidates in that group.

Ireland has three EU constituencies which send 14 MEPs to Brussels. On Tuesday night, Fine Gael’s Regina Doherty, Fianna Fáil’s Barry Andrews, Sinn Féin’s Lynn Boylan and Labour’s Aodhán Ó Ríordáin were elected to the European Parliament as MEPs for Dublin.

This followed the election of Fine Gael’s Seán Kelly as an MEP. He topped the poll in Ireland South on Monday. Counting there continues.

The current Irish government has been in place since June 2020, when Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party voted to enter a coalition together.

Three seats remain to be declared in the local government elections.

Counting is complete in 30 of the 31 local authorities, with the remaining three seats in the Newbridge LEA of Kildare County Council where a recount is under way.

Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have been the main winners in the council elections in the Republic of Ireland.

On Tuesday night, Fianna Fáil had 246 seats, with Fine Gael on 245.

Independent candidates have fared well securing 185 council seats.

The main opposition party, Sinn Féin, has won 102 seats so far, well below its own target of 200.

The Labour Party has 56 seats and the Social Democrats 35.

In total there are 949 council seats across 31 local authorities.

The Green Party has 23 council seats so far, People Before Profit-Solidarity has 13 and Aontú eight.

Elsewhere, Independent John Moran made history, becoming the first person in Limerick to be directly elected by the people to be their mayor.

The Limerick native is a former civil servant, banker and entrepreneur.

Sitting MEP Clare Daly lost her European Parliament seat in the Dublin constituency.

She was excluded on the 17th count and becomes the first outgoing MEP to lose her seat in the election.

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald admitted she was “disappointed” by her party’s council election performance but confirmed she has no plans to step down as party leader.

Commentators have suggested the party ran too many candidates which spread its votes too thinly.

Its leader Ms McDonald has said she will lead a full review into Sinn Féin’s performance.

Sinn Fein’s Finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty has said the leadership of Mary Lou McDonald is not in question and that he has 100% confidence in her to lead the party into a general election campaign.

He said the party was ready to put its case to voters and show the electorate that it could bring about real change, if given power.

Green Party MEP Ciarán Cuffe lost his seat in the Dublin constituency after the 18th count.

He was the second sitting MEP to lose out in Dublin following Clare Daly’s exclusion on the 17th count.