Counting has concluded for the night in the Kildare South constituency – with a three-way battle taking place for the last seat.
Outgoing Fianna Fail TD Fiona O’Loughlin is currently in fifth in the three-seater with Sinn Fein’s Patricia Ryan on course to take the first seat and Fine Gael’s Martin Heydon going to win the second.
Labour’s Mark Wall is in third place at the moment but is just over 100 votes clear of independent Cathal Berry, a former army ranger and doctor who is based in Portarlington.
Fiona O’Loughlin, who was first elected to the Dail in 2016, is almost 500 votes off Wall at the moment but is expected to benefit from transfers from her running mate Suzanne Doyle, who has been eliminated. Her 3,782 votes will be distributed when counting resumes on Monday morning.
Fiona McLoughlin-Healy, who has conceded defeat, will be next to go. She is an independent candidate who ran for Fine Gael in 2016 so it’ll be interesting to see if her votes benefit Martin Heydon or if Berry will pick up further transfers.
On first preference votes O’Loughlin was in third place on 5,927 votes with Wall on 5,899 and Berry on 5,742. But Berry has so far picked up 759 transfers compared to O’Loughlin’s 251.
Wall has done even better on transfers to date by winning 779 extra votes – with 506 alone in the 4th count following the elimination of Ronan Maher of the Green Party.
Wall, who missed out on the third seat in 2016, gained more than 1,600 first preferences on this occasion. He was boosted pre-election by a significant area around his home base in Castlemitchell returning to the Kildare South constituency having been in Laois in 2016.
Patricia Ryan saw an even bigger increase in her vote as she was another of the Sinn Fein candidates to sweep home. She more than doubled her first preference vote from 4,267 in 2016 to 10,155 on this occasion. She was also helped by her base in Monasterevin moving back into Kildare South as well as the addition of her home place in Ballybrittas.
She is still over 800 votes short of the quota but is comfortably on course to take the first seat.
Kildare South is a four-seat constituency that now also includes Portarlington, Killenard and Ballybrittas. It is only electing three TDs, however, as Sean O Fearghail is automatically re-elected as the Dail’s outgoing Ceann Comhairle.
Voting resumes in Kildare South at 9am on Monday morning.
How they stand in Kildare South after the 4th count
- Patricia Ryan (Sinn Fein) – 11,072
- Martin Heydon (Fine Gael) – 8,567
- Mark Wall (Labour) – 6,648
- Cathal Berry (Independent) – 6,501
- Fiona O’Loughlin (Fianna Fail) – 6,176
- Fiona McLoughlin-Healy (Independent) – 4,221
- Suzanne Doyle (Fianna Fail) – 3,782 – Eliminated after the 4th count
- Ronan Maher (Green Party) – 2,144 – Eliminated after the 3rd count
- Linda Hayden (Social Democrats) -1,474 – Eliminated after the 2nd count
- Anita Mhic Ghib (Aontu) – 697 – Eliminated after the 1st count
- Roisin ui Bhroin (Solidarity-People Before Profit) – 598 – Eliminated after the 1st count
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