Stephen Donnelly loses seat – plus other election casualties you ...
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly will not be returning to the Dáil, after failing to secure his seat in Wicklow. The Fianna Fáil Minister was not re-elected after losing out to Fine Gael’s Edward Timmons in the early hours of this morning.
Minister Donnelly, who lost out on the final count, needed an additional 1,500 votes to defeat Timmons. Donnelly had held the seat since 2011 – first as an Independent, then as a Social Democrat, and finally for Fianna Fáil.
Catherine Martin
Another high-profile casualty of this election is fellow government Minister, Catherine Martin, of the Green Party. Martin, who was Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, lost her seat in Dublin Rathdown on Sunday evening, as part of a virtual Green wipe-out.
The Social Democrats’ Sinéad Gibney profited from Martin’s loss, gaining a seat in her constituency. The only Green Party TD who managed to hold their seat in this election was Children’s Minister Roderic O’Gorman, who narrowly clung on in Dublin West.
Neasa Hourigan
The junior coalition partner lost all but one of 12 seats, with O’Gorman only scraping through on the 13th count. While the Greens endured the worst election, there were high-profile TDs across other parties who also lost out. In Dublin Central, the losses continued for the Greens, with Neasa Hourigan also losing her seat, excluded at count seven.
Gino Kenny
Elsewhere, Gino Kenny, People Before Profit TD for Dublin Mid-West, also lost his seat. Kenny, who has spearheaded efforts to legalise euthanasia and assisted suicide, through a 2022 Bill and later the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill 2024, was eliminated on the 9th count on Sunday.
Kenny, whose 2022 Bill prompted the formation of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Assisted Dying (which recommended a change to the law) said: “Unfortunately, it’s not to be today. It’s been a privilege to represent the people of DMW for the past 16 years. Sincere thanks to all those who have supported me throughout that time. I have met some extraordinary people in the past nine years as a TD.”
Anne Rabbitte
Disabilities Minister Anne Rabbitte was another government Minister who lost her seat in this election – a loss which was met with some shock given the fact she held a higher profile than some of the other candidates in her constituency of Galway East. Seán Canney (Independent), Albert Dolan (Fianna Fáil), Louis O’Hara (Sinn Féin), Pete Roche (Fine Gael) took the four seats in Rabbitte’s constituency.
Rabbitte lost out to Louis O’Hara, who became the first Sinn Féin candidate since Liam Mellows in 1918 to be elected in Galway East.
Joan Collins
Irish Right to Change TD Joan Collins, also lost her seat. Collins, who has been a TD for Dublin South-Central since 2011, was emotional in the aftermath of the result, as she vowed to remain a campaigner.
Fellow Dublin South TD Bríd Smith of People Before Profit will also not be returning as a TD after announcing her decision to retire.
“It’s not a great day for us at all,” the People Before Profit politician said this weekend.
Patrick Costello
Catherine Ardagh (Fianna Fáil), Jen Cummins (Social Democrats), Máire Devine (Sinn Féin), and Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Sinn Féin) were elected in the constituency. This meant that Green Party TD Patrick Costello lost his seat along with Collins,
Costello, Dublin South Central TD since 2020 and husband of Hazel Chu, was eliminated from the race on the ninth count.
Chris Andrews
Another high-profile loss this election came in the form of Chris Andrews of Sinn Féin losing his seat during an election where his party managed to retain seats against some predictions. Mr Andrews lost out to Eoin Hayes of the Social Democrats in Dublin Bay South, after Hayes triumphed on transfers from Labour leader Ivana Bacik’s surplus. However, Andrews had been ahead in the race, with 4,875 first preferences compared to Hayes’s 3,615 number one votes.
The Social Democrats have grown in support this election, and have proven to be strongly transfer-friendly, with Hayes benefiting from 782 transfers, meaning he overtook Mr Andrews. The growth seems to have come from voters switching from the Greens.
Violet-Anne Wynne
Independent TD Violet-Anne Wynne also lost her seat, seeing a significant plummet in votes since the last election. While the former Sinn Féin TD topped the poll in Clare with 8.987 votes in 2020, she secured just 310 first preference votes this time around, and was eliminated on the third count with a total of 328 votes.
Patricia Ryan
Patricia Ryan, an Independent TD in Kildare South, similarly saw her support fall off a cliff. Also a former Sinn Féin TD who left the party to run as an Independent in 2020, secured 10,155 first preferences in the last election, topping the poll, but this time around, her vote fell to just 678 number-ones.
Alan Farrell
Alan Farrell of Fine Gael also lost out, conceding defeat on Sunday afternoon in Dublin Fingal East.
Taking to social media, the party chair wrote: “Thank you to the people of Fingal who have elected me on five occasions, over the last 20 years. Thank you for opening your doors to me, and for sharing your stories and challenges.
“It has been my honour and a privilege to serve you. Today was not my day. GRMA.”
The TD had been in fourth place but was leapfrogged by Sinn Féin’s Ann Graves was too far ahead to catch up. In the end, his constituency chose two opposition politicians, Duncan Smith of Labour and Ms Graves.
Bernard Durkan
Fine Gael TD Bernard Durkan has lost his seat in Kildare North. The 79-year-old has been a TD for the constituency since 1997, and previously from 1982 to 1997. He is a former Minister of State for Social Welfare.
Thomas Pringle
In Donegal, outgoing Independent TD Thomas Pringle has failed to hold onto his seat. Pringle, who has been elected to the Dáil on three separate occasions, lost out after the Redress candidate in that area saw a surge and McConalogue succeeded in retaining his seat.
Pringle, who has held the seat since 2011, received 2,147 of Noel Jordan’s (SF) transfers in the second last count but he conceded that the transfers from Nikki Bradley’s (FG) distribution would be enough to get Agriculture Minister McConalogue over the finish line for the last seat.
“That is the only the cookie crumbles and the nature of politics,” he said, speaking at the Donegal count centre.
“We all run for politics and when we do this is the chance we take. Unfortunately it did not work for me this year but it has been a pleasure to represent Donegal in Dublin.”
