Last seat filled... after 67 hours

THE 166th and last candidate to be elected to the new Dáil finally secured his seat after 67 hours of counting yesterday morning — and said he couldn’t wait to get into Leinster House.

Fine Gael newcomer Sean Kyne survived a marathon second count before becoming the 76th member of his party to gain a seat in the 31st Dáil.

After two sleepless nights at the Leisureland complex in Salthill with weary tellers sifting through the 60,000 votes for the umpteenth time, the 35-year-old farming worker said he couldn’t wait to get started in his new job.

“It has been drawn out but I’m just glad it’s all over and that I have won the seat and Fine Gael have secured two in Galway West,” he said after he was elected at 8.15am yesterday.

The count finished in the seventh day since voting began in the Galway West constituency when offshore islands went to the polls last week.

Kyne finished just 17 votes ahead of Independent Catherine Connolly before a recount was called in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

The second recount, which began about 5pm on Tuesday, saw the gap between the rivals at one stage reduce to 12 votes with two counts left but in the end Kyne maintained the 17 vote lead.

It was the longest running count ever in Galway.

Kyne joins Eamon Ó Cuív (FF), Derek Nolan (Lab), Brian Walsh (FG) and Noel Grealish (Ind) as the Galway West representatives in the new Dáil.

The only other time Fine Gael had two representatives in the constituency was in 1982.