Commentary

Another poor performance by Fianna Fail as they lost a seat to the Progressive Democrats.

The Fianna Fail vote was down 17% and with only 1.3 quotas it was obvious that they would not retain their two seats. But it was not so clear who would lose out as outgoing Council Chairman Tom Boland and outgoing Coucillor Ned Ryan were neck and neck throughout the count. They first had to beat off the challenge of Fine Gael's Eithne Loftus and she was eventually eliminated after the eighth count, when only 23 votes behind Ryan. Her transfers left a gap of just 12 votes between Ryan and Boland and in the end Ryan took the last seat by only 17 votes, 306 short of the quota.

The Fine Gael vote was down 4.8% but with 1.4 quotas their seat was secure. With outgoing Councillor Jim Fay not running this time, Tom Morrissey put in an impressive performance winning 1,172 first preferences to take the second seat. Eithne Loftus also put in a good performance and she was eventually eliminated by just 23 votes.

The Progressive Democrats' Sheila Terry put in an excellent performance on her first outing and she took over 1,000 first preferences for the third seat with the help of a good transfer from the Green party.

Independent Sean Lyon put in a spectacular performance and nearly doubled his vote, topped the poll and took the first seat.