THE 166th seat in the 31st Dáil was filled early yesterday when Fine Gael councillor Seán Kyne was returned in Galway West.
The ultra-marathon 67-hour count over four days and three nights involved two full recounts – called by unsuccessful Fine Gael candidate Senator Fidelma Healy-Eames and by Independent councillor and former city mayor Catherine Connolly.
There was a slight change to figures on the first and second recounts, but both yielded the same 17-vote margin on the 13th count between Mr Kyne and Ms Connolly. Mr Kyne was declared elected shortly after 8am in Leisureland, Salthill, by returning officer Marian Chambers-Higgins.
Outgoing Fianna Fáil Minister Éamon Ó Cuív was the first TD to be deemed elected in the five-seater last Sunday, followed by new Labour Party candidate Derek Nolan, who topped the poll on first preferences.
Outgoing Independent and former PD TD Noel Grealish was also returned, along with former Fine Gael mayor and councillor Brian Walsh.
Mr Kyne said the Galway city outer bypass, the expansion of Galway harbour and the future of Rossaveal would be among the key issues he would be looking at in government.
He also said he would seek a review of Fine Gael’s plan to abolish Irish as a compulsory subject in the Leaving Certificate, as he felt that removing the compulsion at this level was a “step too far”. It was an issue on doorsteps during the election campaign, he said.
Ms Connolly said she would run again in a general election, and was very proud to have recorded over 9,000 votes as an Independent with no party machine.
She said she had received more transfers than anticipated from Ms Healy-Eames after her elimination.
Galway West has not returned a female TD since the time of former Fianna Fáil minister Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, currently a European commissioner.
“On a personal level, I feel exhausted, but I’m very very proud of the team of people who worked with me, and proud of what we achieved,” Ms Connolly said. “Of course I’m disappointed . . . but I think there’ll be another time. This is not about me – this is about standing up for what is right in our country,”she said.
“I didn’t promise anything I couldn’t deliver on. On occasions I lost votes by being direct. People know who I am, they know who I stand for,” she said.
In a related development, Galway City Council said it received more than 40 complaints before and on the day of the general election from people whose names were not on the electoral register. Two women had staged a protest outside City Hall last Friday over their removal from the list without their knowledge.
The local authority said it had sent out reminders in cases where enumerators updating the register received no response. One of the complaints had been an error on the local authority’s part, it said.
