Sean Sherlock among those elected in Cork East while Kevin O'Keeffe misses out

The last three seats in Cork East were decided on Count 8 when Sean Sherlock (Lab) reached the quota and FG junior minister David Stanton and FF's new kid on the block, James O'Connor, were elected without reaching the magic figure.

Sherlock admitted that at a number of stages during the count he thought he might not get re-elected, but he managed to get over the line ahead of the two others who were fancied to get elected before him.