Martin hoping to get Kelleher and Byrne across the line

Nemo Rangers

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin is still holding onto the hope of winning two European seats in the Ireland South constituency as the marathon count continues.

The battle for the two last seats in the five-seat constituency is expected to go down to the bitter end with a number of high-profile candidates still in contention. Mr Martin has not ruled out taking legal action depending on the outcome.

Speaking at the count centre in Nemo Rangers GAA Club, he remained confident that sitting TD Billy Kelleher and councillor Malcolm Byrne could be elected to the European Parliament. Mr Kelleher is in a fight with surprise candidate Mick Wallace to take the second seat as counting goes into a fourth day.

Throughout the third day of counting yesterday, transfers were favouring Mr Wallace, who closed the gap on Mr Kelleher as the day went on. By the 12th count, which was announced just after 8pm, Mr Wallace had gained 87,568 which saw him surpass his Fianna Fáil rival who was on 87,036 votes. However, both men were significantly off the 119,866 quota.

Mr Martin, however, remained confident that his party will still put in a strong performance.

Billy Kelleher has done well here, Malcolm Byrne has done particularly well here.

“I think it’s an exceptional performance for a guy like Malcolm Byrne as a councillor, his first European election without being a TD to get close to 70,0000 votes on his first count is a very credible performance. I think Billy Kelleher will do well and Malcolm is in with a shout to the end,” he said.

However, he refused to rule out taking legal action if Mr Byrne were to be in the mix for the fifth and final seat in the constituency, which will not be filled until the UK leaves the EU.

“I am not going to comment on that, that’s a matter we would reflect on, we are concentrating on the performance. So we don’t want to pre-empt that, the returning officer is there to do a job like we did in Dublin we will make our submissions, we will contribute to the discussion,” said Mr Martin.

However, Mr Kelleher was less optimistic than his leader and said it would be “exceptionally difficult” to secure two seats.

“Between the two of us, we got 21% of the vote and we ran a good campaign but with that share of first preferences, it would be exceptionally difficult.”

The Cork North-Central TD said a lot could change today as candidates who gained significantly larger numbers of first preferences are eliminated. Mr Byrne had 72,133 votes after the 12th count last night.