THE COUNT:THE ELECTION of George Lee in the Dublin South byelection on Saturday means Fine Gael now holds three of the five seats in the constituency.
Mr Lee joins fellow Fine Gael Dublin South TDs Alan Shatter and Olivia Mitchell in the Dáil. The other two seats in the constituency are held by Fianna Fáil’s Tom Kitt and Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan, who represents the Green Party.
Mr Lee was elected on the first count with 27,768 votes, comfortably ahead of his nearest rival, Labour Senator Alex White, who had 10,294 votes.
Fianna Fáil candidate Shay Brennan, son of longserving TD and former minister Séamus Brennan, whose death caused the byelection, trailed Mr White with 9,250 votes.
Green Party candidate Elizabeth Davidson polled 1,846 votes, while Sinn Féin’s Shaun Tracey followed her with 1,705 votes.
There were three Independent candidates: Ross O’Mullane, who polled 650 votes; Frank O’Gorman, who received 351 votes; and Noel O’Gara, who received 172 votes.
Mr Lee refused to speculate on whether he would be offered a position on Fine Gael’s front bench. He said voters had given him a mandate to use his skills to represent them. “They have given me that mandate and that is the number one thing as far as I am concerned,” he said. “That is the job I am going to do and we will see what comes from that.”
He said his large vote had sent an unequivocal message to the Government. “Its power is slipping away,” he added.
Mr Brennan said Mr Lee’s performance represented a protest vote. “I would be very hopeful that in the coming years Fianna Fáil will pull that vote back,” he said.
“That would be as a result of the Government taking the necessary actions to repair the economy.”
Mr White said he was pleased with his performance. “While you cannot take anything for granted in politics, we should win a seat in the general election on those numbers,” he said. Mr White said Labour was now a serious political force in Dublin South.