Outgoing Foreign Affairs minister second in Louth poll

The outgoing Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern has come in second in the first count of votes in Louth.

The Fianna Fáil minister has 9,982 votes with his running mate Seamus Kirk tops on 10,190 votes. The quota in the constituncy is 11,003 votes.

Fine Gael's Fergus Dowd is next with 8,387 votes with Sinn Féin's Arthur Morgan close behind on 8,272 votes.

Then there is a gap of over 3,000 votes to Fine Gael's Mairead McGuiness' count of 5,199 votes.