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GE2024fresh facesLAST UPDATE | 1 Dec 2024
COUNTS ARE WELL underway across Ireland as the country finds out who’ll be in the 34th Dáil.
Over the last few years, 18 Fine Gael TDs – many with minesterial positions and high profiles – announced that they would not run in the 2024 election.
It raised questions about how the party would fare, but the large number of exits cleared the way for established councillors and fresh faces to vie for seats.
So how are they doing?
Here’s a key constituency breakdown of how Fine Gael candidates are getting on.
(To keep up with the latest counts, check out our results centre.)
In April last year, Carlow-Kilkenny TD John Paul Phelan announced that he would not be standing at the next general election.
The 45-year-old, who was first elected in 2011, cited his health as the main reason for standing down.
Vying to fill his seat is Catherine Callaghan – the first ever female Fine Gael candidate chosen to contest a general election in Carlow-Kilkenny.
She lost out at the local elections but, as of the ninth count, she is still in the running to win a Dáil seat.
Callaghan is currently in fourth place in the five seater, but Sinn Féin’s Áine Gladney is on hyer heels, so transfers could still change things.
High-pofile party member Heather Humphreys, who served as Social Protection Minister in the last Dáil, has retired from politics.
No one has been elected in Cavan-Monaghan as of the fifth count.
Transfers will be crucial for long-time Fine Gael Councillor David Maxwell if he wants to get one of the five seats. He’s currently in sixth place, less than 50 votes behind Fianna Fáil’s Robbie Gallagher.
Fine Gael TD for Cork East David Stanton didn’t seek re-election after more than 25 years in office.
His son Mark ran to replace him, but was eliminated on the twelfth count.
However, his party colleague Noel McCarthy got the second seat.
Seanad Cathaoirleach Jerry Buttimer is likely to win a Dáil seat in Cork South Central, where Enterprise Minister Simon Coveney bowed out.
Councillor Shane O’Callaghan is also still a contender, but Councillor Úna McCarthy was eliminated on the eleventh count.
Joe McHugh became a TD in 2007 and has been re-elected in Donegal in every general election since – but he decided not to contest this one, citing family reasons.
He had resigned the party whip over an unhappiness in his constituency about mica, which caused around 7,000 homes to crumble.
Fine Gael likely won’t get a single seat in the five seater.
As of the seventh count, Fine Gael candidates Nikki Bradley and John McNulty are doing poorly.
In fact, Charles Ward of the 100% Redress Party, which focuses on the mica crisis, may win one of the five seats up for grabs – and his party was only founded in the last year.
Sitting Sinn Féin TDs Pearse Doherty and Pádraig Mac Lochlainn were both re-elected with ease, and Fianna Fáil’s Pat “The Cope” Gallagher and Charlie McConalogue are also on track to win seats three and four.
Richard Bruton retired after more than four decades in politics.
Fine Gael has run two candidates in Dublin Bay North, in hopes of replacing him.
No one has been elected there yet but, as of the ninth count, former Dublin Lord Mayor and sitting councillor Naoise Ó Muirí is just about on track to win one of the five seats, as he currently sits in fourth place.
The other Fine Gael candidate, Councillor Aoibhinn Tormey, is not far behind, but she may not pick up a lot of transfers from the next eliminations.
Fine Gael lost its representation in Dublin Bay North in 2021, after former Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy resigned. He has since said this was due to exhaustion.
Labour’s Ivana Bacik won his seat in the bye-election, beating Fine Gael’s James Geoghegan.
Today, both Bacik and Geoghegan won seats for the next Dáil term.
Fine Gael veteran Josepha Madigan may have bowed out, but Neale Richmond once again contested a seat in Dublin Rathdown, getting re-elected on the first count.
Fine Gael councillor Maeve O’Connell will likely win a seat, sitting in second place.
Senator Emer Currie has swept in to take the third seat in Dublin West on the second count.
It follows former Taoiseach and local TD Leo Varadkar’s retirement from politics earlier this year.
In Galway East, Fine Gael’s Pete Roche has been elected on the eleventh count.
He beat out Sinn Féin’s Louis O’Hara for the third seat, keeping Fine Gael represented in the area after Ciaran Cannon’s retirement.
Cannon was a Galway West TD since 2011 and served as Minister for State within both the Departments of Education and Foreign Affairs.
Fine Gael ran a second candidate, Clodagh Higgins, but she has been eliminated.
Kerry TD Brendan Griffin, who was first elected in 2011, confirmed last year that he would not be standing in the general election.
As a result, outgoing TD Billy O’Shea is the party’s sole candidate in the constituency.
As of the tenth count, it looks like he’ll lose his seat, giving Fine Gael no representation in the five-seater.
William “Willie” Aird has topped the poll in Laois and been elected to the Dáil after 45 years as a councillor.
It follows Charlie Flanagan’s departure from politics after 38 years.
Aird said he purposefully waited until Flanagan’s retirement before throwing his hat in the ring for a Dáil seat, describing him as “a great representative”.
In Mayo, Fine Gael could win as many as three of the five seats available. Michael Ring retired this year after 45 years in politics.
Sinn Féin’s Rose Conway Walsh won the first seat. Fine Gael TD Alan Dillon was re-elected on the eighth count alongside Fianna Fáil’s Dara Calleary.
Keira Keogh is also likely to win a seat, as the transfers of fellow Fine Gaeler Mark Duffy once eliminated could give her the boost she needs to squeeze out Aontú’s Paul Lawless.
Fine Gael has lost out in Meath West, after Damien English retired and candidate Linda Nelson Murray failed to replace him.
English resigned from his role as a junior minister back in January 2023 after The Ditch website reported that the junior minister had not declared his ownership of a residential property for more than a decade.
The Standards in Public Office Commission decided it would not investigate.
In Wexford, where Paul Kehoe has retired, county councillors Cathal Byrne and Bridín Murphy look likely to miss out on a seat, leaving Fine Gael with none.
In the new Wicklow-Wexford constituency, first time general election candidate Brian Brennan topped the poll and was elected on the sixth count to the three seater.
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What a strange tradition these presidential pardons are
@Brian Dunne: yeah, its basically saying I’m above the law.
@Brian Dunne: I beg your pardon?
@Ro-your-nan: I never promised you a Rose garden.
@Brian Dunne: in part true but I would have no issue with a pardon for snowden.
@Mjhint: pardoning thugs like himself.
Can’t believe Joe Exotic missed out on a pardon.
@David Carroll: He had the limo waiting outside. Lol. Epic fail.
@David Carroll: All Carol Baskins fault if you ask me
@David Carroll: cheque probably didn’t clear in time
@David Carroll: It’s not over yet….. If he’s a plan to upstage Biden he could be holding out.
But I can’t see what pardoning him would get Trump to be honest so he’s probably out of luck.
Bannon charged with duping Trump followers. To be fair that’s hardly a crime – the typical Trump follower is just screaming out “Dupe me, I’m so gullible” every time they post a comment.
@Martello Mulligan: they are sheep you can milk
@Martello Mulligan: Playing to the gallery, this is so old move on
@Blue Avians: But it’s not “so old.” And I do understand how the duped want to forget. It might help them “move on” if they acknowledge what they’ve perpetrated.
@Martello Mulligan: There was more than Bannon involved in that scheme but from what I can gather only he got a pardon….. Then again, he probably has way more dirt on Trump than the other ones.
@Blue Avians: Its a fact. And recent. Look at those who say they were duped about funds to fight the election fraud that never happened.
@Blue Avians: touched a little nerve did he? Feeling a bit sheepish are we? Baa.
Title should read: Trump pardons man who defrauded Trump voters.
Just goes to show how little he actually thinks of his followers. They were a means to an end.
Why would he pardon a guy that defrauded his constitutes of over a one million dollars for his own gain, wouldn’t trump distance himself completely from it and keep it that way,Bannon and his 2 accomplices basically used trumps name and his campaign to make themselves rich, doesn’t pardoning him make trump loom even worse from all sides .
@THE BIRD: I’ve heard that Trump may believe Bannon may be needed as a Trump strategist in the future. Don’t worry about Trump supporters being disillusioned. Over 60% of Republicans polled still believe the election was ‘stolen’. A former CEO of a company that advertised on Fox News was recorded last year saying Fox viewers are very gullible.
@THE BIRD: Bannon is a <ile human being but he's not s#upid.
He definitely has dirt on Donnie.
Pardon the swamp
@Fr. Fintan Stack: He also rescinded the Executive Order that required executive branch appointees to sign a pledge that they would never work as registered foreign lobbyists, and it banned them from lobbying the federal agencies where they worked for five years after leaving the government.
Guess now they need jobs…..
How many times has it happened here in Ireland people above the law. Catholic church, Garda, Political people. We just as bad
@Sean: We’re worse! A pardon means that at least the system tried to hold the person being pardoned accountable for their bad deeds. We don’t do the accountability bit, never mind the pardon.
Please pardon Julian Assange.
Disgusted with Trump for giving John Delaney a pardon!
He will need to pardon himself.
@Alanjturing: He couldn’t pardon himself as it would insinuate he had did something wrong. But its going to be interesting, a lot of people waiting for his presidency to finish.
@Alanjturing: I’d be surprised if he never pardoned his kids, to be honest.
But it was reported recently that because pardoning himself would open him up to civil suits he felt if he can’t get a pardon, nobody does.
Heresay, but you’d wonder.
I still think Rudy will get one.
While drumpf may have given the disgusting creature bannon a pardon, just remember that is ONLY for federal offenses. He is still going to be charged, bannon that is (well in honesty drumpf too) with state offenses in the great state of New York. Nothing either of them can do about it.
8 hours left. Champagne in the fridges. Brie out maturing. Legal grass rolled.
BLISS
Donnie pardoned some rappers Maybe we give donnie his own rapper name.
2PEACH sounds about right
@Gene Johnston: or N-P3ACH perhaps?
@owentighe: yep)
@Gene Johnston:2Mpeach’d
I have no doubt Bannon will incriminate himself again very shortly… people like him cannot resist it
Pardoned for wearing t-shirts with collars under his shirts?
A lot of Brown Envelopes
@Mary Mc Carthy: A lot of br0wn nosers too
If you were to analyse the list in detail you will see. That these people will all have to back Trump going forward. They are either of use in there professional career or influencers of people or have money. I havent seen the list yet but I bet there is no one on the list who can only offer support and has no other means. Good riddens to him thank God they took the nuc codes off the mad man
Now lets read 100 comments from people who have no clue what they are talking about aside from what they read in something called “The Journal” which is barely more than a little girls diary.
@Chaunce Hayden: 1% of those being yours.
Trump to public; We are the party of law and order!!
Trump to mates; Don’t worry lads if your caught ill pardon you.
No pardon for Bertie?
Does Higgins have power of pardon?
have your say