LAST UPDATE | 11 Feb 2020
IT WAS A day of highs and lows as the ballot boxes were opened and votes counted across Ireland on Sunday and Monday.
The count finished at almost exactly midnight with the clock striking time on the current phase of 35 politicians’ careers.
For some TDs, the past three days have been confirmation of huge support in their local constituency. For others, it was a surprising day where they made up for lacklustre local election performance by scooping up many, many more votes.
But for a small group of candidates, it was a bad day – they would no longer be TDs.
The mostly high-profile group have been familiar faces from their appearances in the Dáil over the past four years. But now they have to get used to life out of the Dáil chamber.
Here’s who has lost out…
Kate O’Connell – Fine Gael
It was a bad day for O’Connell. She, her running mate Eoghan Murphy, and Fianna Fáil’s Jim O’Callaghan had all hoped to get the two last seats in Dublin Bay South.
However, after transfers were distributed, the two seats went to Murphy and O’Callaghan though neither had met the quota.
Shane Ross – Independent
Ross was eliminated in the Dublin Rathdown constituency on the fifth count.
However, he had earlier conceded that his imminent departure from the role was ‘not altogether a surprise’.
Regina Doherty – Fine Gael
The Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection was defeated in Meath East.
She received 5,122 first preferences and was eliminated on the sixth count. Doherty was first elected to the Dáil in 2011. Her running mate Helen McEntee, who is Minister for European Affairs, took a seat in that constituency for Fine Gael.
Katherine Zappone – Independent
The Minister for Children was first elected in 2016, following on from becoming a Senator in 2011.
Zappone was a prominent voice during the marriage equality referendum in 2015 and won a marathon count in Dublin South-West the following year, entering the Dáil for the first time.
She agreed to support Enda Kenny’s minority government and became a minister.
Ruth Coppinger – Solidarity-People Before Profit
In Dublin West, the Solidarity – People Before Profit TD was defeated on the sixth count.
Coppinger was first elected in 2014 during a by-election.
She told Newstalk she was “extremely disappointed” to lose her seat as she had been a strong socialist voice in the Dáil.
Noel Rock – Fine Gael
Noel Rock was elected for the first time in 2016 and was the first Fine Gael TD in Dublin North West for 24 years.
Rock’s bid for re-election suffered a blow in 2017 when boundary changes moved parts of areas that voted heavily for him into Dublin Central.
Tom Neville – Fine Gael
Limerick County’s Neville has been a TD since the 2016 general election.
He was elected as a councillor in 2004 before emigrating to Australia a few years later.
He returned before the 2014 local elections and was re-elected to the council. He is the secretary of the Fine Gael parliamentary party.
Pat ‘the Cope’ Gallagher- Fianna Fáil
Symbolically a bad loss for Fianna Fáil in Donegal, with the leas ceann comhairle in the previous Dáil losing his seat.
A true party stalwart who was first elected to the Dáil in 1981 and who also served as an MEP, Gallagher was beaten for the fifth seat by his party colleague Charlie McConalogue.
Catherine Byrne – Fine Gael
Junior Health Minister with Responsibility for Drugs Strategy Catherine Byrne has lost her seat in Dublin South Central.
Byrne had pulled in the second-highest first preference vote in the constituency but transfers from Sinn Féin went heavily to other left-leaning candidates like Bríd Smith (Sol -PBP), Patrick Costello (Green) and Joan Collins (I4C) who were all elected.
Declan Breathnach – Fianna Fáil
Louth’s Declan Breathnach is another casualty for Fianna Fail, with the party winning no seats in the five-seater.
Kevin O’Keeffe – Fianna Fáil
In Cork East, Fianna Fáil’s Kevin O’Keeffe lost his seat in what local newspaper the Echo described as a “huge shock”. His running mate James O’Connor took a seat.
O’Keeffe is the son of politician Ned O’Keeffe and was first elected as a TD in 2016.
Andrew Doyle – Wicklow
Fine Gael’s Andrew Doyle lost out in Wicklow after a long count that saw the Green Party’s Steven Matthews and Fianna Fáil’s Stephen Donnelly sneak past him.
Malcolm Byrne – Fianna Fáil
Malcolm Byrne has become one of the shortest-serving TDs in history after losing his seat just over two months after winning the Wexford by-election.
With the Christmas break not long over, Byrne had a total of only eight sitting days in the Dáil.
Byrne won a national profile with a strong performance in last year’s European elections that had marked him out as one if the rising stars in Fianna Fáil.
Joan Burton – Labour
Labour stalwart Joan Burton is perhaps the most high profile of the pack to lose her seat – and it’s indicative of the losses Labour has suffered so far in this general election.
Burton is a former Tánaiste, Minister for Social Protection and Labour Party leader, and was first elected to the Dáil in 1992. The Dublin native lost her seat on the fifth count.
Pat Breen – Fine Gael
Another senior member of government to lose their seat, Junior Minister Pat Breen didn’t get across the line in Clare.
Breen has been a TD for Clare since 2002 but the constituency has elected just one Fine Gael deputy in the form of sitting TD Joe Carey.
Bobby Aylward – Fianna Fáil
Fianna Fáil’s Bobby Aylward was first elected in Carlow-Kilkenny in 2007, he lost his seat in 2011 and won it again in a 2015 by-election and then in the 2016 election.
Aylward lost out on the tenth count in Carlow-Kilkenny to Green Party candidate Malcolm Noonan.
Aylward’s brother Liam is a former junior minister and MEP.
Marcella Corcoran Kennedy – Fine Gael
In the last election in 2016 Laois and Offaly were separate constituencies of three seats each. Those two have now been combined into a single five-seater and Corcoran Kennedy was the one squeezed out.
She had been a junior minister in the Department of Health prior to Leo Varadkar’s election as taoiseach but lost her brief thereafter.
Mary Mitchell O’Connor – Fine Gael
The Dun Laoghaire count saw Mitchell O’Connor eliminated on the eighth count. It had been thought that she might be safe after early tallies indicated her numbers looked good.
But it was not to be, and the Minister for Higher Education was eliminated. Her running mate, the relative unknown Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, won a seat in the four-seat constituency.
Mitchell was first elected in 2011 and has been Minister for Higher Education since 2017.
Michael D’Arcy – Fine Gael
Junior Minister with responsibility for Financial Services and Insurance Michael D’Arcy has lost his seat in Wexford.
His Fine Gael colleague Paul Kehoe won the last seat in the five-seater.
Lisa Chambers – Fianna Fáil
Chambers lost her Mayo seat on the seventh count, after receiving 8,911 first preference votes.
The young TD didn’t receive enough transfers to get one of the four seats in her constituency. She was a familiar voice and face on the airwaves due to being Fianna Fáil’s Brexit spokesperson, and had served as a TD since 2016.
Chambers was issued a warning last December for her involvement in ‘Votegate’.
Eamon Scanlon – Fianna Fáil
Scanlon was first elected as a TD in 2007. He lost his seat in the 2011 general election and was re-elected in 2016.
He previously served as a Senator from 2002 to 2011 on the Agricultural Panel.
Margaret Murphy O’Mahony – Fianna Fáil
The TD was eliminated on the sixth count in Cork South West.
First elected as a TD in 2016, she was initially a member of Cork County Council.
John Brassil – Fianna Fáil
John Brassil had said early in the count it would take ‘a miracle’ for him to be re-elected in Kerry. He lost out to his colleague Norma Foley for the final seat.
The party had run three candidates in the constituency.
Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran – Independent
Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran lost his seat in Longford-Westmeath.
Moran had been a member of the Independent Alliance (IA) and a junior minister for the OPW but left the IA ahead of this election.
Shane Cassells – Fianna Fáil
Cassells lost out in Meath West. Though he topped the poll for his party four years ago, he lost out on the third count.
Cassells was the party spokesperson for local government and a member of the Public Accounts Committee.
Timmy Dooley – Fianna Fáil
Fianna Fáil’s Timmy Dooley is another high profile casualty after losing his seat in Clare.
The race went down to the tenth count with no TDs elected and Dooley was squeezed out when his party colleague Cathal Crowe was elected along with Independent Michael McNamara, Sinn Fein’s Violet-Anne Wynne and Joe Carey of Fine Gael.
Dooley was a member of Fianna Fáil’s front bench and was among the party’s most well-known faces, but was sanctioned last year as a result of the ‘Votegate’ controversy.
Seán Kyne – Fine Gael
The government’s chief whip lost his seat in Galway West, where he’d been a TD since 2011.
Pat Deering – Fine Gael
The Carlow-Kilkenny candidate was first elected to Dáil Eireann in 2011, two years after taking a seat on Carlow County Council.
He was eliminated on count 7 in the five-seater. His running mate John Paul Phelan took the third seat.
John Curran – Fianna Fáil
The 59-year-old was eliminated on the ninth count in Dublin Mid-West to the benefit of an extremely surprised Gino Kenny of Solidarity/People Before Profit (who had prematurely conceded on Sunday).
Elected to the Dáil in 2002, he lost his seat in 2011 but was returned again in 2016.
A former minister of state and Oireachtas committee chair, the 59-year-old’s political career continues its rollercoaster journey.
Eugene Murphy – Fianna Fáil
The Roscommon-Galway TD entered politics after a media career with Shannonside Northern Sound where he was a producer and presenter. He was elected to the Dáil in 2016.
He was eliminated on the sixth and final count, beaten by the Sinn Féin candidate Claire Kerrane for the third seat.
Frank O’Rourke – Fianna Fáil
The Celbridge man lost out in Kildare North on the sixth count. His running mate James Lawless took the fourth and last seat there for the party.
A new TD in 2016, he was the junior spokesperson on financial services, government and procurement.
Pat Casey – Wicklow
The Wicklow TD, who was first elected in 2016, was eliminated on the 11th count.
Seamus Healy – Independent
An independent TD, Healy won a seat in 2000 for Tipperary but lost it in 2007 before being re-elected in 2011 with the Workers and Unemployed Action party.
He was re-elected in 2016 as an Independent.
He was eliminated in the competitive constituency on the seventh count.
Jan O’Sullivan – Labour
Famous for last-minute comebacks, the Labour stalwart didn’t have the transfers this time out and lost her seat in Limerick City on the eighth count.
A former minister, she first won that seat in 1998 and has held onto it in every single election since.
Fiona O’Loughlin – Fianna Fáil
A newcomer in Kildare South last time out, she became the party’s spokesperson on equality, immigration and integration.
She lost out on the eighth and final count.
Independent Cathal Berry, who ran on a platform including restoring pay to Defence Forces personnel, took the last seat in the constituency which is home to the Curragh Camp army base.
- Additional reporting Adam Daly, Sinéad O’Carroll and Rónán Duffy
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