Fine Gael’s McEntee wins Meath East byelection

Fine Gael's Helen McEntee has won the Meath East byelection to fill the vacancy created by the death of her father Shane McEntee.

Ms McEntee was elected on the third count shortly after 6pm last night, having secured 9,356 votes, or 38.5 per cent of the vote in the first count.

The win was claimed as an important political endorsement by her party, in that the Coalition has bucked for the second time the trend of opposition parties winning byelections.

The poll also marked the confirmation of a strong resurgence for Fianna Fáil. Its candidate, Thomas Byrne, had 8,002 votes (or 32.5 per cent) after the first count.

This represented an increase of 13.5 percentage points on the party’s vote in 2011, where, with 19 per cent of the vote, it failed to win a seat.

In marked contrast, the vote of the Labour Party collapsed throughout the constituency with its candidate, Eoin Holmes, finishing a distant fifth, with 1,112 votes or 4.5 per cent of the vote.

Labour share
This compared to its vote share of 21 per cent in 2011 when Dominic Hannigan made the breakthrough by winning the party's first seat in the constituency.

The result will have implications for the party at national level and will raise questions among some backbench TDs about the wisdom of continuing its current strategy in Government.

Sinn Féin also increased its share of the vote, with new candidate Darren O’Rourke getting 3,165 votes or slightly over 12 per cent of the vote. However, the result was seen as a disappointing outturn for Sinn Féin, which had run a high-profile and vigorous campaign.

The other surprise performance was that of Ben Gilroy, representing Direct Democracy Ireland.

The first-time candidate ran a well-financed and highly visible campaign, finishing fourth ahead of the Labour Party, and getting 1,568 votes.

The final result was announced just before 6.30pm by returning officer, Meath county registrar Mary O’Malley.

Ms McEntee at 26 is the second-youngest deputy in the Dáil – the youngest is her party colleague Simon Harris.

She increased the gap in later counts over her nearest rival Mr Byrne, finishing slightly under 2,000 votes ahead at the last count.

Low turnout
The turnout at 38.5 per cent was not as low as had been expected amid reports of widespread apathy. Turnout at byelections is normally lower than at general elections and the inclement weather conditions on polling day was also a factor.

Ms McEntee had been expected to perform more strongly in the north of the constituency around her Nobber base. In the event, she got a slightly stronger vote share in the commuter-belt towns and villages near the southern border with Co Dublin.

In contrast, Mr Byrne polled most strongly in the north of the constituency, particularly around Kells and Duleek.

Three out of four voters cast their ballots for one or other of the two main parties, Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil, in a strong reassertion of their traditional dominance in this constituency.

Cumulatively, candidates from smaller parties or Independents got 10 per cent of the vote, somewhat lower than the support levels being expressed in national opinion polls.