Returning officer had no reason to doubt accuracy of Seanad vote, High Court told

Cllr Angela Feeney was eliminated on the 23rd count by a margin of .116, or one-ninth, of a ballot, missing out on the final seat to Fine Gael’s Maria Byrne in January’s Seanad election

Each valid Seanad ballot paper is deemed to have a value of 1,000 votes. The total valid poll for the 11-seat agricultural panel was 95,667 votes. File picture: Houses of the Oireachtas

A returning officer who refused a former Seanad candidate’s request for a full recount of the vote during the recent election has told the High Court he had no reason to doubt the accuracy of the count.

Martin Groves, the recently-retired clerk of the Seanad, said a narrow margin of votes separating Cllr Angela Feeney and the final successful candidate in the agricultural panel was not grounds in and of itself to direct a full recount of votes.