Expected Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Sinn Féin seats
Battle on for the two remaining berths
Roderic O’Gorman trails badly on early tallies
Dublin West
Seats filled: 0
10.20am: Finance minister Jack Chambers is battling to top the poll in Dublin West with Sinn Féin’s Paul Donnelly, in what is now a five-seater.
But with 35pc of boxes opened, the two men are neck-and-neck with Donnelly on 22pc to Chambers’ 20pc, but the latter’s Castleknock stronghold has not yet been factored in..
Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman, on 6pc – but with current ballots not from his base – believes he will be in a fight for the fifth seat with Labour’s John Walsh. The latter is on 5pc and gaining.
Former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar once bestrode this constituency, but is leaving politics, with the expectation that Fine Gael’s one-candidate strategy is likely to bring home Emer Currie, who was on 13pc with over a third a quarter of ballots opened.
That leaves the remaining two seats up for grabs, with Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman battling with People Before Profit candidate Ruth Coppinger, a former TD for this area, and Walsh, the Labour Party candidate.
Coppinger is on 9pc and Walsh 5pc at this stage. Tania Doyle, an Independent, is also on 5pc. She was physically attacked during the local elections.
Aontú’s Ellen Troy is a dark horse, also polling 5pc, while the candidature of former SF councillor Natalie Treacy is likely to scupper any Sinn Féin hope of bringing in their second candidate, first timer Breda Hanaphy.
