Local elections 2024 – Kildare: 'Wake-up call' for Green Party as ...

Green Party Senator Vincent P. Martin, a former poll-topper in Naas and sister of deputy party leader and Minister for Tourism Catherine Martin, said the party needed to examine how it communicated it messages.

He said the party’s collapse in the partly rural county contrasted with neighbouring Dublin where it performed reasonably well.

“Communications could be better. There’s no-one loves rural Ireland more than the Greens and maybe that message didn’t get across,” he said.

He said the party also needed to push its social justice agenda better.

“People get it that we’re for the environment but maybe we have a job of work to do to remind people of the value of social justice which underpins our party.

“This is a wake-up call. We have to redouble our efforts.”

Sitting candidates Peter Hamilton in Maynooth and Bob Quinn in Naas were both knocked out, Mr Hamilton in the first count.

Patrica Foley in Clane and Peter Paul Hughes in Celbridge were also first to be eliminated in their electoral areas.

Lorraine Benson in Kildare, Imran Ali in Leixlip and Ronan Maher in Newbridge were still awaiting their fate late on Sunday afternoon.

Mr Martin said the party had polled at 5-6pc and would take some “crumbs of comfort” from that.

“They were one or two per cent short of making it. The challenge is to bring back that 1-2pc increase in the vote. It's very marginal and falling 1pc can have a cruel outcome.

“We have to take inspiration from the wins elsewhere and examine how to share the wisdom from the successes in Dublin.”

The other part emerging from the count with much reflection to do was Sinn Fein which was in no certainty about retaining its sole seat in the late afternoon.

Meanwhile Fine Gael continued to lap up victories with eight seats secured, ahead of Fianna Fail’s five, the Social Democrats’ four and Labour’s four. Two Independents have so far secured seats.

1pm

Counting in the Kildare local elections could run into Monday as the battle for seats heats up.

Just three of the eight electoral areas have returned a final result, only three of the seven seats in Naas are filled and four areas have not yet had a first count.

Seasoned observers say the pace indicates either a very long night on Sunday to complete the count or an adjournment to Monday morning.

One caveat is that, so far, there have been clear margins between candidates, no disputes and no wrangling over doubtful votes.

If that pattern continues, the Punchestown count centre may fully return to hosting races of an equine kind by tomorrow.

The latest picture at lunchtime shows 17 of the 40 seats filled with Fine Gael taking six, followed by Fianna Fail and the Social Democrats with four each.

If that pattern continues, Fine Gael would take over from Fianna Fail as the biggest party on the council.

The party was one seat behind its main rival in the outgoing council.

Labour has two seats and there is one Independent. All sitting councillors who entered the race have been returned apart from Peter Hamilton of the Green Party.

8.30am

Counting in the local elections in Kildare resumes this morning after a flurry of late night results brought the total of councillors elected to 15.

Two of the eight electoral areas, Clane and Maynooth, have now filled their five seats each while Celbridge has just one of its four left to decide.

Seven-seater Naas had two of its councillors elected when counting was suspended for the night at 1am.

Counting in those two areas is due to start again at 9.30am at Punchestown and will get underway in the remaining areas – Athy, Newbridge, Leixlip and Kildare – from about 10am.

Seats secured so far break down in the following party lines: Fine Gael 5, Fianna Fail 4, Social Democrats 4, Labour 1 and Independents 1.

Councillors elected so far are as follows: Maynooth – Naoise Ó Cearúil (FF), Tim Durkan (FG), Peter Melrose (Soc Dem), Angela Feeney (Lab), Paul Ward (FF).

Clane – Brendan Wyse (FG), Pádraig McEvoy (Ind), Aidan Farrelly (Soc Dem), William Durkan (FG), Daragh Fitzpatrick (FF).

Celbridge – David Trost (FF), Claire O’Rourke (Soc Dem), Lumi Panaite Fahey (FG).

Naas – Bill Clear (Soc Dem), Fintan Brett (FG).

11pm

Six local election seats have now been in Kildare with two for Fianna Fáil, two for Fine Gael and two for the Social Democrats.

It has been a particularly good night for the Social Democrats with two candidates securing seats on first counts.

Bill Clear topped the poll in Naas to reclaim his seat while in Celbridge, first-time candidate Claire O’Rourke was one of two councillors to be elected on the first count.

Ms O’Rourke came second in Celbridge to Fianna Fail’s David Trost, bringing two new members to the council who could be described as veteran newcomers.

Ms O’Rourke recently retired from a career in the mental health services in the HSE and in private practice so politics is a new venture but she has been involved in community action for many years.

David Trost is well known for canvassing on behalf of Fianna Fail over the years but finally became the face on the poster in a move that paid off for him and the party.

Polling well above quota, he had plenty of votes to spare but without a running mate, his transfers went most generously to Fine Gael first-timer Lumi Panaite Fahey.

That brought her to within one vote of the quota at time of writing.

Earlier, Brendan Wyse and Tim Durkan, both Fine Gael took the second and third seats on the council while Naoise Ó Cearúil was the first home for Fianna Fáil.

So far it has been a night to forget for Sinn Fein and the Green Party although there is still a long way to go with none of the four commenced electoral areas complete and four more to start on Sunday.

No full count is complete for any electoral area in Kildare but already the post mortem has begun for Sinn Fein in the county.

The party ran 14 candidates across the eight areas, hoping for a dramatic increase on the solitary seat it took into the election.

Arriving at the Punchestown count centre, Sinn Fein TD for Kildare North Réada Cronin conceded there would be no such rise in fortunes.

“All the candidates are very disappointed and I’m very disappointed for them,” she said as the vote across the county stayed low.

“We listened to the people last time when they told us we didn’t run enough candidates,” she said of the decision to double up in most of the electoral areas which split a poor vote even further.

She insisted she was pleased with the performance of a number of candidates, however, saying they had made progress and were on a sound footing for possible future outings.

“They hit the bar but did not get the goal in the back of the net,” she said.

“But we ran a good positive campaign and I’m very proud of them.

“On Monday we roll up the sleeves and get back to work.”

7.30pm

Kildare has its first two councillors with the election of Fianna Fáil’s Naoise Ó Cearúil and Fine Gael’s Brendan Wyse.

Mr Ó Cearúil very comfortably exceeded the quota on the first count in the Maynooth electoral area and returns to the seat he first won in 2014.

Mr Wyse had also had a large surplus, topping the poll in the Kildare electoral area.

Their elections came minutes apart as the pace begins to quicken at the count centre in Punchestown.

Distribution of their transfers is now under way.

4.30pm

Kildare county council looks to get some fresh faces with newcomers set to take seats in the four-seater Celbridge electoral area.

Three of the seats were left wide open after just one sitting councillor, Rupert Heather (Lab), returned to the fray.

The opportunity to fill the gap was quickly seized by the Social Democrats, whose new candidate, Claire O’Rourke, is looking strong to take a seat.

Fine Gael seem to have had a stroke of luck in finding Lumi Panaite Fahey to wear the party colours and enter the race.

She too is performing very well.

David Trost (FF) looks certain to take the seat vacated by his party colleague Michael Coleman and may top the poll.

That would leave Labour’s Heather and David Monaghan (SF) the others most likely to be in with a shout.

Counting has officially begun in four of the eight electoral areas – Maynooth, Clane, Celbridge and Naas, with the other four scheduled to begin on Sunday morning.

1.30pm

There is little sign of a Sinn Fein bounce or a swing to independents in Kildare where sitting candidates for the main parties are performing strongly.

Tallying is still underway at lunchtime but with two of the eight electoral areas complete, it looks like there will be few upsets.

In Maynooth, four of the five seats look likely to be held by siitting candidates, Naoise Ó Cearúil (FF), Tim Durkan (FG) and Angela Feeney (Lab) while Paul Ward (FF) is also looking safe.

It is possible that newcomer Peter Melrose (Soc Dem) could be vying sitting Green, Peter Hamilton, for the fifth.

A similar pattern is showing in Clane, also a five-seater, where sitting candidates Brendan Wyse (FG), Pádraig McEvoy (Ind) and Aidan Farrelly (Soc Dem) hold the top three spots for first preferences and Daragh Fitzpatrick (FF) is in fifth.

The decision of Brendan Weld (FG) not to run again leaves that seat open but at the moment FG newcomer William Durkan is polling fourth on first preferences.

With 90 candidates for 40 seats and tallying continuing, there is a long way to go but Social Democrats co-founder and Kildare North TD Catherine Murphy was boldly predicting the party could gain on the four seats sit currently holds.

She said predictions of an influx of independents on councils or a shift to Sinn Fein may have been exaggerated.

“We didn’t see that trend on the doorstep,” she said.

“Certainly people had issues and complaints but they wanted to engage with us on them. They weren’t looking to vote in a completely different direction.”

Tallying continues at the Curragh Racecourse but completed boxes will move to Punchestown where the count proper is due to begin this afternoon.