Kerry results: Danny Healy-Rae retains seat on sixth count

The last of the five TDs to be elected in Kerry was Norma Foley, who replaced veteran Fianna Fail TD John Brassil.

Despite not making the 12,945 quota, she was elected on 11,989 votes ahead of Mr Brassil’s 8,655 from a total poll of 78,209.

Of Green Party candidate Cleo Murphy’s distributed votes after she had been eliminated in the seventh count, 1,861 had gone to Ms Foley.

She later said: “I had hoped to be elected but had never envisaged that it would be as it turned out.”

The party had, like Fine Gael, thought there was an ample opportunity for a second seat, completely under-estimating Sinn Féin’s Pa Daly before the so-called Sinn Féin bounce.

When it happened, it confounded both Fine Gael and Fianna Fail election campaign managers.

But in the case of Fianna Fail, it backfired and led to a stunned Mr Brassil losing his seat.

Added to that was the fact the party fielded Ms Foley so close to Mr Brassil, instead of pitting her or another Fianna Fail candidate in the Killarney area - Danny Healy-Rae’s core territory.

The constituency’s other four TDs are Michael Healy-Rae, who topped the poll, Mr Daly, Fine Gael’s Brendan Griffin and Michael’s brother Danny.

Michael Healy-Rae was elected on the first count.

Just days before the election, a TG4 poll had placed Danny in the ballot below the Green Party candidate Cleo Murphy. But the poll served to reinvigorate Mr Healy-Rae’s campaign and he got in with 13,000 votes, just over the 12,945 quota.

Brendan Griffin was also elected on the sixth count, thanks largely to his running mate Mike Kennelly, who was eliminated in the fifth count.

Candidates: Michael Healy-Rae (Ind), Danny Healy-Rae (Ind), Brendan Griffin (FG), Mike Kennelly (FG), John Brassil (FF), Norma Foley (FF), Norma Moriarty (FF), Pa Daly (SF), Cleo Murphy (GP), Sonny Foran (Aontú), John Bowler (Irish Freedom Party), Ted Cronin (Ind), Seán O’Leary (Ind).