FF bring in two to FG’s one

ONE of the barometer constituencies did exactly as one would have expected in light of the national outcome, returning two Fianna Fáil candidates and one for Fine Gael, just as it did five years ago.

The only difference was a change of personnel on both sides and an increase in the Fianna Fáil vote, with three sitting TDs competing for all three seats.

Despite a combined first preference vote of 53%, up 3% from 2002, the arrival of the party’s Minister of State Batt O’Keeffe’s into Cork North West effectively cost veteran TD Donal Moynihan his seat.

The Fine Gael seat was taken by poll-topper Michael Creed, regaining the Dáil place he lost to party colleague Gerard Murphy last time around. Fianna Fáil’s Michael Moynihan followed him in the fourth and next count, with

O’Keeffe being elected on the fifth count.

While early tallies had suggested that Murphy might challenge for the last seat, it was never likely once results of the first count were announced at around 4.50pm that Fine Gael would regain the dominance they held over the constituency up to 1997.

The party’s first preference vote fell from 42% last time round to just 38%.

Creed said his election was the result of a campaign that began the day he walked out of the same count centre in Macroom five years ago.

He conceded that mistakes were made then, when polls suggested he was to keep his seat.

“We stopped half way through and said we’d help our running mate. We both set out to maximise our vote this time but it wasn’t enough for two Fine Gael seats,” he said.

For Minister of State Batt O’Keeffe, it was a case of job well done after his Ballincollig base — once part of the mostly urban Cork South Central — was placed into this largely rural constituency after boundary changes.

After much unease about his entry into the fold, he insisted that the three-candidate strategy helped bolster the party’s vote.