Fifth count gives McGuinness Euro seat; Harkin in line for fourth seat

The result of the fifth count in the Midlands North West European constituency has elected Fine Gael's Mairead McGuinness for the European parliament.

Ms McGuinness has 135,698 votes after she got an astonishing 72% of Jim Higgins' available transfers - 28,009 out of 38,429 transferrables - to put her ahead of Sinn Féin's Matt Carthy on 126,492 votes.