Commentary

‘Another Dublin three-seater, another blank for Fianna Fáil’

There were major Constituency Commission changes here since 2007. A population of 9,021 in the Portmarnock and Balgriffin areas was transferred into Dublin North-East from Dublin North, and a population of 2,758 in the Edenmore electoral division was transferred to Dublin North-Central. However, the constituency did retain its three seats.

Fine Gael’s single candidate, outgoing deputy Terence Flanagan put in an impressive performance and topped the poll and was well over the quota on the first count with the Fine Gael vote up 7 points on 2007.

Tommy Broughan was just short of the quota on the first count and went on take the second seat on the second count. This was one of only two constituencies in the ‘Spring Tide’ election of 1992 to deliver two seats for Labour. Remarkably the same two candidates that won in 1992, pulled off the same feat in 2011. With the party vote up 19 points in this election, Labour was well placed to repeat the 1992 performance. Sean Kenny trailed both Larry O’Toole and Averil Power on the first count but managed to do better on transfers and passed out the Sinn Fein and Fianna Fáil candidates. He comfortably took the final seat ahead of Sinn Fein in an impressive performance. Labour did well to convert 1.4 quotas into two seats with Kenny coming from outside the frame on the first count and with just 0.4 of a quota. This was another example of Labour’s strong transfer performance in this election.

This result was another disappointment for Sinn Féin and for veteran candidate Larry O’Toole. He looked well placed on the first count but the party’s old failing of not gaining transfers once again came into play and O’Toole was well beaten in the battle for the final seat.

This was another disastrous performance for Fianna Fáil with its vote down 28 points and with just under half a quota they were struggling. Newcomer Averil Power had been selected to replace the long-serving TD and former Cabinet Minister Michael Woods who had retired. Power was never really in contention and her first count vote of 4,794 left her in fourth place. Power was just too far off the pace and she was the final candidate eliminated. Her transfers went nearly 4:1 to Kenny over O’Toole to decide the battle for the final seat.

Eamon Blaney son of the former long serving Donegal deputy Neil Blaney, contested this constituency for “New Vision” but got just 4% and was never in contention. Five candidates lost the right to reclaim their expenses including Jimmy Guerin, brother of the late Veronica Guerin.