Waterford election 2024 results live: David Cullinane elected with ...

We will have live updates from the Waterford count centre, considered one of the bellwether constituencies, through the weekend.

Sinn Féin’s David Cullinane was elected on the first count and there is a real chance of a second TD for the party here. Counting resumes on Sunday morning.

Follow the results from all 43 constituencies with our results hub.Follow live updates from the counts with our live story.Waterford results.

Waterford count suspended until 9am Sunday.

‘The gap is significant’

Independent TD Matt Shanahan has admitted he may have too big of a gap to make up against Sinn Féin’s Conor McGuinness to win the fourth and last seat in Waterford.

“The gap is significant. It will be hard to close,” he told WLR. He took the opportunity to hit out at political parties who “piled on” after he displayed an election ad on the gable end of the palliative care unit at University Hospital Waterford. He said they were outraged by a light display when he wished they would be more vocal about the number of patients being transferred to Cork for treatment and on the slowness in delivering a fully staffed catheter lab to serve the southeast.

Labour candidate delighted

Labour’s Sadhbh O’Neill said she was delighted with her first outing in Waterford where she received 1,500 first preference votes.

“This was my first outing as a Labour candidate in Waterford and I only received the nomination 6 weeks ago. This result is a baseline against which we will be building our presence over the coming years.

Unlike 1991, when I was elected a Dublin City Councillor while on a J1 visa, this time I canvassed all over the county. I got a very warm reception everywhere I went and I can see that support reflected in the many votes I got down the ballot aside from no. 1s. I look forward to standing in future elections for Labour in Waterford.”

On the election outcome, Sadhbh O’ Neill, who stood for Labour in Waterford, expressed dismay that climate change did not feature strongly in the debates and hustings. “It feels like the election took place inside a bubble of denial and delay. No matter who ends up forming a government, it is vital that Ireland acts to develop plans to help us prepare for weather extremes.

Candidates and parties should have been interrogated on how they plan to both adapt to and mitigate climate change in Ireland. Even non-controversial areas of decarbonisation like bringing our public transport up to European norms were not addressed in any meaningful way by Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Sinn Féin. That makes me very fearful of how these parties will tackle more challenging topics like data centres, high electricity costs and sustainable land use, because if the next government doesn’t act we’re all in big, big trouble.”

Irish Elections have moved on. At the Waterford count a printed copy of counts is made available. The “public statement after Count Two” was very helpful for cross-checking the figures; all in the interest of accuracy!

Second Sinn Féin seat on the cards

The surplus of 1,205 votes from Sinn Féin’s David Cullinane has transferred heavily to running mate Conor McGuinness in 2nd count. He secured 901 votes bringing his total to 6,692. That’s a thumping 75 per cent transfer, but most significantly it expands the gap from his main rival Matt Shanahan to 1,267. SF camp getting chirpier about nailing down that second seat.

David Cullinane confident of second Sinn Féin seat

This time Sinn Féin believes it got its strategy right with the party set to deliver a second seat. David Cullinane retained his poll topping position but says he is confident of securing a second seat with Cllr Conor McGuinness.

The lion’s share of his 1,205 surplus are expected to transfer strongly. Geography is on his side too as he has had a clear run in West Waterford. The man living in Ring Gaeltacht says the left vote will probably be good for him too, and he will be watching the votes of Labour’s Sadhbh O’Neill with more than passing interest, in the hope of seeing off out-going Independent TD Matt Shanahan.

Sinn Féin’s David Cullinane has been elected on the first count with 11,936 votes. More to come.

The first count is expected in the next short while here in Waterford, Fine Gael candidate John Cummins and Fianna Fáil’s Mary Butler are likely to take the second and third seats based on the tallies, with the fourth seat a bit harder to call.

David Cullinane of Sinn Féin is moments away from being elected here in Waterford.

Green Party candidate loses seat

The Green Party was the victim during the election campaign of “persistent narratives and they really stuck”, including that they were “anti-rural”, according to its Waterford TD Marc O’Cathasaigh who lost his seat.

The Green Party, he added, had become the bete noir of practically all parties, including their government partners Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, whose negative message was “it was the greens what made us do it”.

Mr O Cathasaigh said the party had secured a huge amount in government, which he was proud of. “We did the work but we failed to communicate the work,” he added. This had gone beyond their traditional positions on climate, energy, nature and biodiversity and included social policies and progressive budgets. “I think there was a very successful communications campaign against the Greens.

A lot of the stereotypes were very pervasive, very persistent. People describing me to myself as somebody from D4 and going to a private school, which is not an accurate description of me at all.”

Equally, the party was described as being anti-rural, even where candidates were was “as rural as can be” and with a farming background. These myths, he said, which also applied to former leader Eamon Ryan, who he believed was pilliored despite being “an incredibly-committed politician, and one of the most morally-motivated persons I have ever come across... the stereotype of that doesn’t resemble the reality”.

With Green Party strongholds in Dublin under such pressure, it was inevitable its candidates in other parts of the country would be in difficulty, Mr O Cathasaigh said. Conceding his seat was lost before the first count result was declared, he said, the going out of the green wave of 2020 “meant strong headwinds in Waterford were going to be difficult to meet”.

Adding to his difficulties was a local campaign against offshore renewable energy, he said, while the issue of Waterford Airport expansion had damaged him - with inaccurate accounts of his position on the issue. With a risk that no Greens would be elected at all, he said “no party takes green issues as seriously as we do. Without us in government, I would be worried that the best policies will be unpicked”.

David Cullinane set to be elected

Based on 54,014 (estimated) total votes the quota expected to be circa 10,742 with 58 per cent turnout.

The completed tally has David Cullinane (SF) at 11,835 1st prefs (22.4 per cent) and he is set to be elected on the first count; second and third seats look safe for Senator John Cummins (FG) at 10,203 (19.3 per cent); Mary Butler (FF) at 9,894 (18.7 per cent).

The last seat looks like a dogfight between Conor McGuinness (SF) at 5,727 (10.8 per cent) and Matt Shanahan (Ind) at 5,218 (9.9 per cent) but don’t rule out Mary Roche (Soc Dems) at 2,631 (5 per cent).

While last seat is probably between McGuinness and Shanahan, Roche is expected to be transfer-friendly among parties of left including Marc O Cathaisagh of the Greens - with 1,635 1st prefs (3.1 per cent). It may not be enough to challenge for last seat and if eliminated her votes are expected to benefit Shanahan.