Dublin Mid West has returned two Labour Party and two Fine Gael TDs, with two women coming home first.
Labour’s Joanna Tuffy, who topped the poll, was elected on the seventh count with 8,948 votes. She was followed home on the next count by Fine Gael’s Frances Fitzgerald.
The ninth count saw a battle between Sinn Féin’s Eoin Ó Broin, Derek Keating of Fine Gael and Robert Dowds of the Labour Party.
In the end, Ms Fitzgerald’s surplus brought home Mr Keating and Mr Dowds, who polled 7,703 votes and 8,112 respectively. Mr Ó Broin polled 7,151 in the end.
The big loser on the day was the outgoing Government chief whip, Fianna Fáil’s John Curran, who was eliminated on the seventh count, having polled 5,513 votes. He said he was disappointed not to have been elected, but “very pleased” that more than 5,000 people in the constituency had given him a vote “at time when the party in Dublin in particular is struggling”.
He said he had not had a chance to think about the future and said he would like to wish the other candidates still in the running well. He said the Fianna Fáil party in Dublin had to rebuild with a view to the council elections in two years.
Ms Tuffy said her party would have to “drive a hard bargain” in negotiations with Fine Gael, in forming the next government. “We have to go in and make sure we make our mark, whether that is in protecting public services, looking after vulnerable families or doing something really radical to reform the health service.” She said she did not want to see Labour being “the next Green Party”. Of particular concern to her was investment in education, she said.
Mr Dowds said Fine Gael "will have to remember the electorate chose Labour in big numbers, for a reason".
