GE2024 fresh facesLAST UPDATE | 1 Dec 2024
COUNTS ARE WELL underway across Ireland as the country finds out who’ll be in the 34th Dáil.
Over the last few years, 18 Fine Gael TDs – many with minesterial positions and high profiles – announced that they would not run in the 2024 election.
It raised questions about how the party would fare, but the large number of exits cleared the way for established councillors and fresh faces to vie for seats.
So how are they doing?
Here’s a key constituency breakdown of how Fine Gael candidates are getting on.
(To keep up with the latest counts, check out our results centre.)
In April last year, Carlow-Kilkenny TD John Paul Phelan announced that he would not be standing at the next general election.
The 45-year-old, who was first elected in 2011, cited his health as the main reason for standing down.
Vying to fill his seat is Catherine Callaghan – the first ever female Fine Gael candidate chosen to contest a general election in Carlow-Kilkenny.
She lost out at the local elections but, as of the ninth count, she is still in the running to win a Dáil seat.
Callaghan is currently in fourth place in the five seater, but Sinn Féin’s Áine Gladney is on hyer heels, so transfers could still change things.
High-pofile party member Heather Humphreys, who served as Social Protection Minister in the last Dáil, has retired from politics.
No one has been elected in Cavan-Monaghan as of the fifth count.
Transfers will be crucial for long-time Fine Gael Councillor David Maxwell if he wants to get one of the five seats. He’s currently in sixth place, less than 50 votes behind Fianna Fáil’s Robbie Gallagher.
Fine Gael TD for Cork East David Stanton didn’t seek re-election after more than 25 years in office.
His son Mark ran to replace him, but was eliminated on the twelfth count.
However, his party colleague Noel McCarthy got the second seat.
Seanad Cathaoirleach Jerry Buttimer is likely to win a Dáil seat in Cork South Central, where Enterprise Minister Simon Coveney bowed out.
Councillor Shane O’Callaghan is also still a contender, but Councillor Úna McCarthy was eliminated on the eleventh count.
Joe McHugh became a TD in 2007 and has been re-elected in Donegal in every general election since – but he decided not to contest this one, citing family reasons.
He had resigned the party whip over an unhappiness in his constituency about mica, which caused around 7,000 homes to crumble.
Fine Gael likely won’t get a single seat in the five seater.
As of the seventh count, Fine Gael candidates Nikki Bradley and John McNulty are doing poorly.
In fact, Charles Ward of the 100% Redress Party, which focuses on the mica crisis, may win one of the five seats up for grabs – and his party was only founded in the last year.
Sitting Sinn Féin TDs Pearse Doherty and Pádraig Mac Lochlainn were both re-elected with ease, and Fianna Fáil’s Pat “The Cope” Gallagher and Charlie McConalogue are also on track to win seats three and four.
Richard Bruton retired after more than four decades in politics.
Fine Gael has run two candidates in Dublin Bay North, in hopes of replacing him.
No one has been elected there yet but, as of the ninth count, former Dublin Lord Mayor and sitting councillor Naoise Ó Muirí is just about on track to win one of the five seats, as he currently sits in fourth place.
The other Fine Gael candidate, Councillor Aoibhinn Tormey, is not far behind, but she may not pick up a lot of transfers from the next eliminations.
Fine Gael lost its representation in Dublin Bay North in 2021, after former Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy resigned. He has since said this was due to exhaustion.
Labour’s Ivana Bacik won his seat in the bye-election, beating Fine Gael’s James Geoghegan.
Today, both Bacik and Geoghegan won seats for the next Dáil term.
Fine Gael veteran Josepha Madigan may have bowed out, but Neale Richmond once again contested a seat in Dublin Rathdown, getting re-elected on the first count.
Fine Gael councillor Maeve O’Connell will likely win a seat, sitting in second place.
Senator Emer Currie has swept in to take the third seat in Dublin West on the second count.
It follows former Taoiseach and local TD Leo Varadkar’s retirement from politics earlier this year.
In Galway East, Fine Gael’s Pete Roche has been elected on the eleventh count.
He beat out Sinn Féin’s Louis O’Hara for the third seat, keeping Fine Gael represented in the area after Ciaran Cannon’s retirement.
Cannon was a Galway West TD since 2011 and served as Minister for State within both the Departments of Education and Foreign Affairs.
Fine Gael ran a second candidate, Clodagh Higgins, but she has been eliminated.
Kerry TD Brendan Griffin, who was first elected in 2011, confirmed last year that he would not be standing in the general election.
As a result, outgoing TD Billy O’Shea is the party’s sole candidate in the constituency.
As of the tenth count, it looks like he’ll lose his seat, giving Fine Gael no representation in the five-seater.
William “Willie” Aird has topped the poll in Laois and been elected to the Dáil after 45 years as a councillor.
It follows Charlie Flanagan’s departure from politics after 38 years.
Aird said he purposefully waited until Flanagan’s retirement before throwing his hat in the ring for a Dáil seat, describing him as “a great representative”.
In Mayo, Fine Gael could win as many as three of the five seats available. Michael Ring retired this year after 45 years in politics.
Sinn Féin’s Rose Conway Walsh won the first seat. Fine Gael TD Alan Dillon was re-elected on the eighth count alongside Fianna Fáil’s Dara Calleary.
Keira Keogh is also likely to win a seat, as the transfers of fellow Fine Gaeler Mark Duffy once eliminated could give her the boost she needs to squeeze out Aontú’s Paul Lawless.
Fine Gael has lost out in Meath West, after Damien English retired and candidate Linda Nelson Murray failed to replace him.
English resigned from his role as a junior minister back in January 2023 after The Ditch website reported that the junior minister had not declared his ownership of a residential property for more than a decade.
The Standards in Public Office Commission decided it would not investigate.
In Wexford, where Paul Kehoe has retired, county councillors Cathal Byrne and Bridín Murphy look likely to miss out on a seat, leaving Fine Gael with none.
In the new Wicklow-Wexford constituency, first time general election candidate Brian Brennan topped the poll and was elected on the sixth count to the three seater.
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