Labour's Ms Joan Burton has claimed the third seat in Dublin west, joining returning TDs Mr Brian Lenihan for Fianna Fáil and Mr Joe Higgins, of the Socialist Party.
Ms Burton, a junior minister in the Rainbow Coalition, lost her seat in 1997, when the constituency had four TDs.
She takes the seat previously held by Fianna Fáil’s Mr Liam Lawlor who who served two jail terms during the last Dáil, subsequently resigned from the party and is not seeking re-election.
Ms Burton was elected on the sixth count and benefited from transfers from Fianna Fáil’s Mr Lenihan.
Mr Lenihan and Mr Higgins were widely expected to hold their seats. Mr Lenihan said it was great honour to be the first TD elected in the State. Mr Lenihan claimed 8,086 votes, well ahead of the quota of 7,498. The Fianna Fail share of the vote was reported to the 33.6 per cent, up 1.6 per cent on the last year. Mr Higgins was elected on the fourth count. However, the result is bad news for Fine Gael which had hoped the strong campaign run by its candidate Ms Sheila Terry could have claimed the seat. The party’s share of the vote was reported to have slipped 4.6 per cent to 12.3 per cent.
Standing as an Independent, Ms Terry topped the poll with 2,057 first preferences in the Castleknock electoral area in the 1999 local elections.
