Sitting Fianna Fáil MEP Billy Kelleher has been returned to the European Parliament by voters in the Ireland South Constituency, but the Green Party’s Grace O’Sullivan has not been able to retain her seat.
Meanwhile, Luke Ming Flanagan has been re-elected in Ireland Midlands–North-West.
After 18 counts in Ireland South, Kelleher exceeded the quota with a total of 120,105 votes, with a surplus of about 5,500.
It means Kelleher takes the second of five seats in the constituency, after Fine Gael’s Seán Kelly was elected way back on the first count.
Count 19, which involved the distribution of Kelleher’s surplus, saw his Fianna Fáil colleague Cynthia Ní Mhurchú receive over 3,300 additional votes, leaving the four other remaining candidates to share in a minority of the transfers.
At the end of that count O’Sullivan found herself with the lowest vote total and was eliminated on 69,197 votes.
It means that the Green Party has lost both of its two sitting MEPs, after Ciarán Cuffe was unable to retain his seat in Dublin.
Following her elimination, O’Sullivan said in a statement: “Serving as a Member of the European Parliament for Ireland South has been the honour of my life, and I am extremely grateful to the people of Ireland South who trusted me with their votes.”
Among her contributions in the European Parliament, she cited her critique of the EU-Mercosur Trade Agreement, saying: “I was…a member of the Mercosur Delegation, where I fought tooth and nail to protect Irish farmers, and the environment, from a deeply damaging trade deal that puts profit before the wellbeing of people and planet.”
There are three seats remaining to be filled in Ireland South, with only four candidates remaining, namely Michael McNamara (independent), Kathleen Funchion (Sinn Féin), Cynthia Ní Mhurchú (Fianna Fáil), and sitting MEP Mick Wallace (Independents 4 Change).
In Ireland Midlands–North-West, where there have also been 19 counts, Luke Ming Flanagan exceeded the quota on the last count, ending up with 118,745, a surplus of about 5,400 votes.
Some way back from Flanagan, there are just around 1,400 votes separating Nina Carberry (Fine Gael), Maria Walsh (Fine Gael), and Barry Cowen (Fianna Fáil).
The last two remaining candidates after that – and that two candidates that will likely be battling it out for the last of the five seats – are Ciaran Mullooly from Independent Ireland and Michelle Gildernew of Sinn Féin, with Mullooly enjoying a lead of about 4,000 votes at present.
On the 19th count, Fianna Fáil’s Lisa Chambers was excluded, as any potential transfers from Flanagan’s surplus would not have been enough to keep her in the race. Aontú’s Peadar Tóibín had been eliminated earlier, as had sitting Sinn Féin MEP Chris MacManus, whose transfers put Gildernew right back in contention.