BABY AND BRITTO Pereppadan, the father-and-son team, have won a seat each on the South Dublin County Council for Fine Gael.

Baby was re-elected to represent Tallaght South on the fifth count, surpassing the 1,257-vote quota this afternoon.

His son, Britto, is a first-time candidate and was elected to neighbouring Tallaght Central on the ninth count, two hours later. It is the first time a Fine Gael candidate has been elected to the area for nearly 20 years.

Speaking to reporters on the family’s result, the pair said they were delighted to win their seats and looked forward to representing the Tallaght area for the next five years. 

“We are very happy,” Baby Pereppadan said. “We have worked very hard these last couple of months, he’s working full time and I’m a full-time councillor for five years.

“We got a very good response from nearly all the houses. We are very happy.”

Speaking on his first campaign, Britto Pereppadan said: “I was selected on 3 July last year at the Fine Gael selection convention to run as a candidate in Tallaght Central.

Since then, I’ve really been at it. I’ve been working hard over the last 10 or 11 months. So I’m really grateful and privileged for the result.

“We’ve been putting the hours in, whether it’s after work or over the weekend.

“Whenever we got a chance we were getting involved in the community and speaking with many people, knocking on doors, handing leaflets out. We’ve been going all out so I’m really happy with this result” he added.

The family have been based in Tallaght for over 20 years and Baby has been contesting elections since 2009, winning for the first time in 2019. Today, he won his first election beside his son. He said: 

This is a special occasion, especially because it’s a father-and-son elected on the same day in different constituencies and very different areas.”

The father-son councillors are just two of the many Fine Gael candidates contesting this year’s local election, around Dublin, who come from a migrant background.

Speaking to Newstalk yesterday, former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar name-checked them both, adding that for every “far-right Twitter warrior who’s going to get elected, there’ll be at least one Fine Gael migrant-background candidate in Dublin elected”.

'For every far-right warrior on Twitter who's going to get elected, there will be at least one Fine Gael migrant-background candidate in Dublin elected'@LeoVaradkar on #LE24 pic.twitter.com/eIn2LdeaO7

— NewstalkFM (@NewstalkFM) June 8, 2024

Varadkar added that the five candidates, likely to be elected, will act as “five fingers to the far right”.

“There [were] instances where some posters were taken down. You do get the odd racist comments out at the door, but I mean, you’re seeing two hundred, three hundred people a day – every single day – so I would generally say it’s been the minority,” Britto said.

“You just have to give it your best. It is an area where we haven’t had a Fine Gael seat in the last 20 years, so I think that I’m very privileged that the people have entrusted me to represent them on a county level.

“I’ll give it my best shot, that’s for sure,” he added.

Father and son FG candidates, Baby and Britto Pereppperdan, have both been elected to South Dublin County Council. @thejournal_ie pic.twitter.com/0AN4AT8VVY

— Muiris O’Cearbhaill (@muirisoc) June 9, 2024

Voters are still being counted at Weston Airport in Dublin. Palmerstown-Fonthill is the only remaining ward in South Dublin County Council where no candidate has reached the quota of 1,616.

Just one candidate has been elected to the tightly contested seven-seater Clondalkin ward so far, independent incumbent Francis Timmons, surpassing the quota of 1,601.

While People Before Profit’s candidate Darragh Adelaide sits currently on 1,277 votes after the eighth count, and will most likely take the second seat, it’s unclear which candidate will be first past the quote to take one of the remaining five seats.

There are five candidates who have received around 1,100 votes after the eighth count, including Sinn Féin’s William Carey, Independent Ireland’s Linda De Courcy, Fianna Fáil’s Trevor Gilligan, Social Democrats’ Eoin Ó Broin, and Fine Gael’s Shirley O’Hara.