Kenny views 'sweet victory' as step nearer FG coalition

Meath News: Fine Gael's retention of the Dáil seat vacated by former taoiseach John Bruton was a "very sweet victory" for party leader Enda Kenny.

As celebrations continued throughout the weekend in Nobber, the north Meath home of winning candidate Shane McEntee, Mr Kenny was particularly pleased that for the first time since 1927, Fine Gael had topped the poll against Fianna Fáil in the constituency.

While governments rarely win byelections and none has done so since 1982, Fine Gael views the victory as another step in the preparation of an alternative coalition. Mr Kenny said that after Opposition victories in the local and European elections and now in the byelections, "the Government better get off its butt and see that the alternative government is coming down the tracks and it means business".

Mr McEntee, a publican and restaurateur, received 16,964 first preference votes, representing 34.13 per cent of the total poll and 847 votes ahead of his Fianna Fáil rival, 26-year-old sports journalist and Navan town councillor Shane Cassells.

Just 41.07 per cent of the electorate voted and the new Fine Gael TD for Meath said his one regret was that "the other 60 per cent did not turn out to vote".

After just over 11 hours of counting in the Simonstown Gaels GAA club, on the outskirts of Navan, Mr McEntee was elected on the fourth count, without reaching the quota, with 24,017 votes, finishing 2,839 ahead of his Fianna Fáil rival.

The party's director of elections, Tipperary North TD Tom Hayes, said Mr McEntee was an "excellent candidate. He is a worker and he will retain the seat for the people of Meath."

The victorious candidate and the party leader, who expressed his great pride that their candidate had "proved so many people wrong", arrived into the count centre just before the final result was announced. Supporters held up tricolours. Asked if he was "reclaiming the flag" for Mr Kenny, Mr McEntee said: "We've never been ashamed of our flag and those who have usurped it have not done our country proud."

It was a contest that was "too close to call" and Fianna Fáil director of elections Noel Dempsey was "disappointed" the party did not "get the vote out". He believed, however, that they had run a fantastic campaign with just three weeks and an "excellent candidate" selected just three weeks ago.

Shane Cassells, in his speech at the end of the count, expressed pride that at 26 years of age and with a campaign of just three weeks, he had polled over 16,000 first preference votes. "That ain't bad," he said, adding that "the new generation will have its day".

It was described as a two-horse race, a tag rejected by Labour and Sinn Féin. Labour 's new candidate, Cllr Dominic Hannigan, a civil engineer with transport expertise, almost trebled the party's share of the vote from 4.26 per cent to 11.20 per cent. This was "despite the predictions of all the national press - we've shown them all to be wrong. As the constituency divides at the next election, I'm well placed to being elected."

Party leader Pat Rabbitte said it marked a resurgence for Labour in Meath. Both Fine Gael and Labour were happy that their transfer pact was working, although the pattern was unclear in Meath because both Labour and Sinn Féin candidates were eliminated at the same time.

Sinn Féin's Joe Reilly held the party's vote and increased it from 9 per cent to 12.25 per cent. He said they had enough votes in the Gaeltacht areas to secure a seat in the Údarás na Gaeltachta elections and he believed that "organisationally the party is going to benefit, because there was a huge growth in particular areas, which will turn into new cumainn".

Mr Reilly said they would still have a strong vote base in Meath West, the new three-seater constituency at the next election. "We are the Labour Party in Meath West," he said. "We are getting the working class vote that was traditionally a Labour vote." Mr Rabbitte said: "We have to go back to the drawing board on Meath West and we have to find another Dominic Hannigan. We haven't focused on Meath West yet."

The Progressive Democrats' Sirena Campbell was "delighted" with her result, 2,679 first preference votes. The PDs had no organisation in Meath, but she got 5.39 per cent. "Just 40 per cent of the electorate came out, so my vote is good," she said. "Three weeks ago nobody knew me. They know me now and there wasn't any box that we didn't get a vote in."

The Green Party was very disappointed with its showing for Fergal O'Byrne, who got 1,590 first preference votes. "We'll have to take a serious look at our resources," said party chairman John Gormley. "You have to start campaigning long before the election."