THE GREEN PARTY looks to be holding its ground as counting gets underway across the country in the local elections, but the fate of the party’s two MEPs appears more uncertain. 

Based on tallies from this morning, Green Party candidates in the local elections have fared better than some had predicted. 

Counting for the European Parliament elections will not get underway until tomorrow morning – but tallies from this morning show that the party’s two MEPs, Ciarán Cuffe and Grace O’Sullivan are far from guaranteed to keep their seats. 

Speaking to The Journal this afternoon in the RDS count centre in Dublin, Ciarán Cuffe said it “clearly isn’t a green wave but it’s not a wipeout either”.

Leah Farrell Leah Farrell

Cuffe said he expects to see some existing green councillors lose their seats, but expects to see gains in other areas.

Indeed, in some areas the Green vote appears to have remained strong.

Tallies have shown Green Party councillor Michael Pidgeon sweeping ahead in the South West Inner City, Dublin. While in the South East Inner City, the party’s councillor Claire Byrne was also leading across several ballot boxes.

“It’s a real mixed bag for the Greens, but I’m glad that despite being in government during challenging times, we will still have some gains in certain areas,” Cuffe said. 

When asked about his own seat, the Dublin MEP said he would love to see a good result tomorrow but that it is a crowded field, even among the centre left. 

“It’s quite hard to predict. I think we will see seats for the main parties, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. I think we will see Barry Andres [Fianna Fáil] returned, but from there on it’s hard to call,” Cuffe said. 

But everyone says second preferences are all over the place so I don’t think anyone knows. 

“I’m certainly happy that I’ve been working hard in Europe for the last five years. I hope that translates into votes and preferences tomorrow, but it’s quite early to tell,” he added. 

Speaking to reporters earlier at the RDS, Green Party leader Eamon Ryan said Cuffe’s seat was at risk. 

“It’s such a competitive field, I know that myself having ran for it a few years ago,” he said.

“I think he’ll be in with a chance for that last seat, but it’ll be dependent on transfers,” Ryan added. 

In the Ireland South constituency for the European Parliament, Green MEP Grace O’Sullivan also faces an uphill battle to keep her seat. 

Reports on the tallies from the count centre in Cork today suggest that Billy Kelleher and Sean Kelly look likely to go to the top of the poll while O’Sullivan will struggle.

You can follow the latest on The Journal‘s liveblog here. 

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This work is co-funded by Journal Media and a grant programme from the European Parliament. Any opinions or conclusions expressed in this work are the author’s own. The European Parliament has no involvement in nor responsibility for the editorial content published by the project. For more information, see here.