Irish Elections 2014 (2)

DUBLIN CITY COUNCIL 
RESULTS:

Dublin City Council (63 seats) COUNT COMPLETED:

Ballyfermot-Drimnagh (6) – Daithí Doolan (SF), Brid Smith (PBP) Greg Kelly (SF), Daithí De Róiste (FF), Paul Hand (Ind), Vincent Jackson (Ind) Filled

Ballymun (7) – Cathleen Carney Boud (SF), Noeleen Reilly (SF) Andrew Montague (Lab) Noel Rock (FG) Paul McAuliffe (FF) Andrew Keegan (PBPA) Aine Clancy (Lab) Filled

Beaumont-Donaghmede (9) – John Lyons (PBP), Mícheál MacDonncha (SF), Larry O’Toole (SF), Tom Brabazon (FF), Denise Mitchell (SF) Declan Flanagan (FG) Paddy Bourke (Ind) Alison Gilliland (Lab) Michael O’Brien (AAA) Filled

Cabra-Finglas (7) – Cieran Perry (Ind), Anthony Connaghan (SF), Emma Murphy (SF), Brendan Carr (Lab), David Costello (FF), Teresa Keegan (Ind), Seamus McGrattan (SF) Filled

Clontarf (6) – Damian O’Farrell (Ind), Seán Haughey (FF), Naoise Ó Muirí (FG), Jane Horgan-Jones (Lab), Deirdre Heney (FF), Ciarán O’Moore (SF) Filled

Crumlin-Kimmage (6) – Criona Ní Dhálaigh (SF), Tina McVeigh (PBP), Ray McHugh (SF), Pat Dunne (UL), Rebecca Moynihan (Lab), Catherine Ardagh (FF) Filled

North Inner City (8) – Christy Burke (Ind), Janice Boylan (SF), Niall Ring (Ind) Ciaran Cuffe (Green) Gary Gannon (Ind) Jonathan Dowdall (SF) Éilis Ryan (Ind) Ray McAdam (FG) Filled

Pembroke-South Dock (8) Chris Andrews (SF), Mannix Flynn (Ind) Dermot Lacey (Lab) Frank Kennedy (FF) Kieran Binchy (FG) Claire Byrne (GP) Paddy McCartan (FG) Sonya Stapleton (PBP) Filled

Rathgar-Rathmines (6) – Kate O’Connell (FG), Patrick Costello (Green) Jim O’Callaghan (FF) Paddy Smyth (FG) Ruairi McGinley (Ind) Mary Freehill (Lab) Filled

Dublin West By-Election:

(This was to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of independent TD, Patrick Nulty).

THE SOCIALIST PARTY won a second Dáil seat in  the Dublin West constituency after Councillor Ruth Coppinger  went ahead of Fianna Fáil’s David McGuinness on the sixth count in  the Citywest count centre..

Coppinger joins party leader, Joe Higgins, in Dáil Éireann and was elected on the sixth count with 12,334 votes. She failed to reach the quota of 14,478, but withstood competition from Fianna Fáil’s McGuinness who got 9,237 votes. McGuinness had reached second place, ahead of Sinn Féin’s Paul Donnelly after gaining from the transfers of the eliminated Fine Gael candidate Eamonn Coghlan on the fourth count.

But, the elimination of independent David Hall saw his transfers go mostly to Coppinger who moved over 600 votes ahead of McGuinness after the fifth count before benefitting from a sizeable transfer from the eliminated Sinn Féin candidate, Paul Donnelly, on the sixth and final count. Speaking soon after her election Coppinger said: “We’re just delighted that we kept this seat for the left and for Socialism.”

Earlier, upon arriving in Citywest, Coppinger said that voters’ switch to left-leaning parties in the constituency was “somewhat inevitable if you consider the level of anger, the level of disillusionment with the establishment parties”. She said: “So, parties such as the Socialist Party, who are anti-austerity and parties who are critiques of austerity, like Sinn Féin, who have a much bigger apparatus in the Dáil in terms of 14 TDs, would be seen as a vehicle to express a protest.”

Earlier in the day, Sinn Féin’s Paul Donnelly said it was “a fantastic result” for the party and “the manifestation” of the work his party has put in across the constituency over the last four years.

It’s been a bad day for Labour whose candidate Loraine Mulligan polled just over 1,500 first preferences votes and was eliminated on the second count along with Green Party candidate Roderic O’Gorman.

The fact that Donnelly headed the poll in first preferences but, was displaced by Coppinger in the later counts, with transfers from eliminated candidates, shows the importance of the transferable vote in Irish elections and the ability of the voters to target the candidates they want elected. Nevertheless, Donnelly’s high poll puts him in contention for a seat in Dublin West in the next General Election.