THE GREEN PARTY’S Ciarán Cuffe has been elected to the European Parliament as part of a ‘green wave’ that has swept the country in the local and European elections.

While he received a lower vote share than projected by the RTÉ/TG4 exit poll, Cuffe was still comfortably elected on the 13th count.

Cuffe, a sitting Dublin City Councillor, was only offered an outside chance of ahead of the election in the four-seater constituency. He described his election being part of a “green wave sweeping Europe” and that it is driven by young people wanting change.

Asked about Green policies following his election, Cuffe said:

We’d love to make those changes ourselves, but we’d certainly welcome if other parties want to take on the policies that we’ve been advocating for many years particularly when we have the prospect of carbon fines kicking in and people will be paying a price unless we do change our policies.

But will the Greens go into the next government? Asked about this, Cuffe said that is a question “for another day” and his hope is that “we see a move towards a more sustainable Ireland and a more sustainable Europe, and I think that can happen in a number of different ways”.

Speaking to RTÉ after the first results were released yesterday, Cuffe said: ”It is looking as though we will have a green voice in Brussels for Ireland for the first time this century.”

The Green Party will have to wait to see if Saoirse McHugh or Senator Grace O’Sullivan will be joining Cuffe in the European Parliament.