Coughlan will take time to consider her political future

TÁNAISTE:TÁNAISTE MARY Coughlan was the highest profile Fianna Fáil casualty when she lost her seat in the Donegal South West constituency which she had held since 1987.

Ms Coughlan said she had not decided on her political future and predicted that Fianna Fáil would regroup and re-establish itself as a major force in Irish politics.

Ms Coughlan turned up at the St John Bosco count centre in Donegal town on Saturday night but left before the fourth count which saw her lose her seat.

Before leaving she told reporters that it was a gamble running two Fianna Fáil candidates. “It was a risk, there is no two ways about it,” she said of the decision that she and Brian Ó Domhnaill would both stand in the constituency.

She added that the total of 9,745 first preferences for the two Fianna Fáil candidates was higher than the 8,589 first preferences won by Fine Gael outgoing TD Dinny McGinley.

Ms Coughlan indicated she would take time to consider her political future. “I have not made any decisions about my political career,” she said.

She said the election was very difficult for all her Government colleagues. She wished the incoming administration well and said a “lot of people have spoken about having change and they have got change”.

On Fianna Fáil, Ms Coughlan said: “We are going to regroup, we are going to have to rebrand and there are certainly very, very committed members of the organisation. We still have huge support within that organisation and under the new leadership of Micheál Martin I would hope and it would be my expectation that we can get back.”

Sinn Féin finance spokesman Pearse Doherty was comfortably elected on the first count in the constituency, with 14,262 first preferences, almost a third of the vote.

A serious question mark over whether Ms Coughlan could survive had emerged as Mr Doherty’s large surplus was distributed. She was narrowly ahead of running mate Ó Domhnaill in the subsequent two counts, giving her an outside chance of scraping through for the third seat on his transfers. But in the fourth count Mr Ó Domhnaill won a total of 5,724 votes to Ms Coughlan’s 5,655. As he was ahead of her by 69 votes, Ms Coughlan was eliminated.