Sinn Fein's Fintan Warfield and Greens' Saoirse McHugh on verge of Seanad election

Sinn Fein's musician Fintan Warfield and Green Party rising star Saoirse McHugh were on the verge of election to the Seanad.

A number of failed TDs who lost their seats in February were also on the verge of election to the Upper House, among them former Government Chief Whip Sean Kyne and Fianna Fáil's Lisa Chambers.

There were 20 candidates competing for the five seats on the Cultural and Educational Panel and Mr Warfield won the most first preference votes with 151, falling some 37 short of the quota of 188.

Under the Seanad's somewhat confusing and complicated system, each vote carries a value of 1,000 so in value terms, Mr Warfield's vote after count 1 was 151,000 and the quota in value terms is 188,000.

He was followed by the Green party's Saoirse McHugh next on 115,00 then Fine Gael Councillor John McGahon with 102,000.

#Seaand2020 - LIVE coverage of today's Cultural & Education Panel count can be watched on Twitter, Facebook and online here #seeforyourself https://t.co/EM4xhnO24k https://t.co/QriJXWfQBc

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In fourth place at this stage Lisa Chambers, former Fianna Fáil TD with 101,000 votes and Sean Kyne, former Fine Gael TD on 82,000 votes.

After her own failure to win a general election seat, Fine Gael's Mary Newman, sister of former TD Kate O'Connell was elimated on the seventh count.

This effectively spells the end of the family's involvement in national politics.

By the eighth count, the five top spots were still occupied by Mr Warfield, Ms McHugh, Mr McGahon, Ms Chambers and Mr Kyne.

No candidates had reached the quota at the count taking place at Dublin Castle by the time of going to print.

Because of the Coronavirus lockdown, candidates and the media had been asked to remain away from the count and proceedings were being live streamed on the Oireachtas social media accounts. Jack Mulcahy was excluded in the first, Eamonn Walsh was excluded on the second count and Angela Flynn on the third.