Final counts: Tipperary SouthSenator Martin Mansergh was finally declared elected to the Dáil for Tipperary South at 10pm on Saturday after a re-examination of ballot papers failed to alter his 59-vote winning margin over outgoing Independent TD Séamus Healy who lost his seat.
Mr Mansergh described Fianna Fáil's success in winning two of the constituency's three seats as "a fantastic achievement which no one in the media had predicted" and said "this will go down in the annals of Tipperary electoral history".
He is the first Fianna Fáil TD to represent the Tipperary town electoral area since Dan Breen retired in 1965.
Senator Mansergh said he was "humbled at the honour and responsibility of becoming a TD".
Fianna Fáil had run three candidates seeking to replace Noel Davern, their outgoing TD who is retiring from public life.
The party's vote topper was Mattie McGrath, a councillor for the Cahir electoral area running in his first general election, who secured almost 20 per cent of first preferences and was elected on the sixth count.
He is facing public order charges which are adjourned until June 12th at Clonmel District Court.
Tom Hayes of Fine Gael topped the poll and was elected on the fifth count. However, his vote was down slightly from 2002.
Mr Hayes said he had lost some votes to Senator Mansergh from voters who "thought he was a potential minister" and said there had been "a noticeable swing to Fianna Fáil in the last few days of the election campaign".
Asked if he expected a seat in the cabinet, Dr Mansergh told The Irish Times, "I have the experience to take on whatever responsibilities the Taoiseach would wish to assign to me" but added: "I'll find ways of making myself useful whether anyone asks me or not."
He agreed that "there are certain public hopes" of a cabinet seat for Tipperary south.
Dr Mansergh said he had enjoyed the election campaign and had "started canvassing last September".
He "tried to do it the way it ought to be done - and not in too egotistical a fashion" and wanted to see "if it was possible to win an election without doing things that you'd normally be ashamed to do".
Mattie McGrath, who owns a plant hire company, was educated at St Joseph's, Cahir and Kildalton Agricultural College. A poll-topping councillor with 25 years of service, he ran a colourful, populist campaign. After his election, his ecstatic supporters said a new version of his campaign song Our Guy, Your Guy had already been recorded with new verses added.
Labour suffered a major disappointment and failed to gain a seat in a constituency which had been one of the party's key targets.
Cllr Phil Prendergast who had hoped to win Mr Healy's seat polled less than 9 per cent of votes. She had formerly been an ally of Mr Healy and a member of his Workers and Unemployed Action Group but they fell out and she joined the Labour Party in 2005.