Local elections 2024 – Kildare County Council: Little sign of Sinn ...

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.