Stephen Donnelly looks to have a fight on his hands to hold his seat ➢ Stephen Donnelly ➢ BFN IE

Stephen Donnelly looks to have a fight on his hands to hold his seat

GE2024 dogfight constituency

With 80% of the boxes tallied now, it shows that Simon Harris has 30.4% of the vote, followed by Sinn Féin’s John Brady with 14.6%.

Stephen Donnelly - Figure 1 — Photo thejournal.ie

Christina Finn reports from the Wicklow count centre

STEPHEN DONNELLY LOOKS to have a fight on his hands to hold his seat in Wicklow.

The current Minister for Health is struggling in early tallies and could be in trouble.

It now appears, as reported by The Journal this week, that Micheál Martin joining him on the campaign trail in Greystones was perhaps a last-ditch push to shore up the vote.

With 100% of the boxes tallied now, it shows that Simon Harris has 30.4% of the vote, followed by Sinn Féin’s John Brady with 14.6%.

Social Democrats Jennifer Whitmore has 13.4% of the vote, but it’s set to be a dogfight for the final remaining seat.

The constituency has gone from a five to a four seater.

Donnelly has 6.3% of the vote share, according the final tally.

If you take a closer look at the area of Greystones, where Donnelly lives, with all the boxes tallied in that area, he has just 920 votes.

Stephen Donnelly - Figure 2 — Photo thejournal.ie

Hot on Donnelly’s heels is Independent Shay Cullen with 5.6% of the vote, followed by Fine Gael’s Edward Timmins with 5.4% and Independent Joe Behan with 5.2%.

Wicklow constituency with 80% of boxes tallied. pic.twitter.com/xbYgAGeNtS

— Christina Finn (@christinafinn8) November 30, 2024

The Green Party’s Stephen Matthews now looks set to be the first of a possible two sitting TDs to lose their seat in this constituency. With 80% of boxes tallied, Matthews is on 4.1%.

Speaking to tally people in the count centre in Greystones, a number of people from Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil said it will all come down to transfers now. There could be close to 7,000 surplus votes from Harris sao all eyes will be where they will transfer.

There have been indications that Donnelly could get a high number of transfers from Harris’ surplus votes, but others have said that Harris has also been heavily transferring to Timmins.

Reasons for the health minister’s poor showing in his own backyard is that he had closed his constituency offices in Bray and Greystones, with criticisms of Donnelly centering around him not being present on the ground as well as not being overly involved in the Fianna Fáil cumann.

It would be seen as a major embarrassment for the party if Fianna Fáil were to lose a sitting minister.