'It's been a difficult wait,' says O’Sullivan as marathon election count ends
The Green Party’s Grace O’Sullivan has secured the fourth seat in Ireland South, with Fine Gael MEP Deirdre Clune taking the fifth, so-called Brexit seat.
The results were confirmed after a marathon 12-day election count with the last three MEPs elected.
Independents 4 Change candidate Mick Wallace took the third seat on the 19th count, with Ms O’Sullivan pipping Ms Clune to the fourth seat on the 20th count.
Fine Gael’s Sean Kelly and Fianna Fáil’s Billy Kelleher were elected last week.
Neither Ms O’Sullivan nor Ms Clune reached the quota, but both were deemed elected.
Ms O’Sullivan finished on 119,701 votes, with Ms Clune picking up 112,162 after the surplus of Mr Wallace’s vote was distributed.
Ms O’Sullivan’s election is the latest step in the so-called ‘green wave’ in Irish politics, which saw the party secure 49 council seats, as well as one other European seat in Dublin, where Ciaran Cuffe was elected.
“I was hoping all the time that I would be the last surge of the green wave,” she said.
“We have had the election green wave — I am the end of that — and now we need the productivity of that, a new green wave.
“It is such a privilege, and it has been a difficult wait for everyone, but I have the fourth seat, the working seat and I am going to Europe.
"I give my commitment that I will not waste one moment.”
For Ms Clune, it was a bittersweet moment. She finds herself in the same situation as Barry Andrews of Fianna Fáil, who took the final seat in the Dublin constituency.
Neither will take their seat until Britain leaves the EU.
She said: “I don’t want to see Brexit happen at all but, I think, it is going to happen, unfortunately. It is a bittersweet moment...
“Europe matters more than ever now that we are facing into the next few years, the relationship this country will have with the UK and the relationship the UK will have with Europe.”
