Galway West
Galway West: 1st Count not expected until evening
Counting of votes begins at 9aat the Bailey Allen Hall at NUIG. There are 181 ballot boxes and around 40 will be opened and counted at any one time beginning with the city boxes.
Tallies will give early trends but a first count is not expected until well into this evening. Counting of votes is expected to last until Monday, or later, – in 2011, recounts and rechecks, meant the final seat wasn’t filled until the five days after the first vote was counted.
The total electorate in Galway West is 103,704 voters compared with 88,840 in 2011. About half of the extra 15,000 voters can be attributed to the addition of South Mayo to the constituency following the redraw by the independent Boundary Commission.
The Galway West constituency has three parts: Galway city, county and Mayo.
The total electorate in Galway City is 46,157, which includes 426 who were added to the supplementary register in recent weeks.
There are 49,868 voters in Galway County, including all areas in Connemara west of Barna and areas including Oranmore, Turloughmore and Carnmore to the east of the city. Some 387 additional county voters were added to the supplementary register.
Meanwhile, there are 7,697 eligible voters in the new Mayo part of the constituency, which includes Ballinrobe and Shrule.
There are 14 polling stations in the city boundary including: Scoil Caitriona Renmore; Camasú Centre/Castlegar Racing Lodge; Ballybane Community Centre; Mervue Boys NS; Tirellan NS; Mercy Convent NS, Francis Street; Presentation NS, Newcastle Road; Shantalla NS; Westside Community Centre, Seamus Quirke Road; Bushypark NS; Gaelscoil Mhic Amhlaidh; Scoil Einde, Dr Mannix Road; Dominican NS, Taylor’s Hill; and St Nicholas’ NS, Claddagh.
There are a further 79 polling stations in the Mayo and County Galway parts of the constituency including Barna NS, Furbo NS, Moycullen NS, Castlegar NS, Maree NS and Oranmore Boys NS.
Polling stations open at 7am and close at 10pm. Voters indicate the order of choice of their candidates by writing the 1 in the box beside their preferred candidate. If they wish voters can write 2, 3, 4 and so on down the line to their next preferred candidates.
This instructs the returning officer to transfer your vote to your second and subsequent choices if your first choice if elected or eliminated. Polling cards are not essential but voters must otherwise bring photographic identification with them when voting.
There are 20 candidates seeking five seats. The sitting TDs were: Éamon Ó Cuív, Noel Grealish, Seán Kyne, Derek Nolan and Brian Walsh, who resigned in January citing ill health.
There was mixed news for the Government parties in an opinion poll published on Tuesday which indicated Fine Gael was in the hunt to retain two seats in Galway West, but Derek Nolan has a big battle on his hands to hold the Labour Party seat.
The poll for TG4 will also serve as a wake-up call to Independent sitting TD, Noel Grealish, as it indicates he is in danger of losing the seat he has held since 2002.
The party share of the first-preference vote in Galway West, according to the poll, is: Fine Gael (30%), Fianna Fáil (21%), Sinn Féin (11%), Labour (6%), other parties (11%) and Independents (21%).
The following is the first-preference support of each candidate as indicated to Ipsos/MRBI: Éamon Ó Cuív (FF, 13%), Seán Kyne (FG, 13%), John O’Mahony (FG, 11%), Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (SF, 11%) and Catherine Connolly (Ind, 8%). Deputy Grealish came in at 7% and the next three candidates were tied on 6% including Labour TD Derek Nolan, Fine Gael Senator Hildegarde Naughton and newcomer Social Democrats candidate, Niall Ó Tuathaill.
Fianna Fáil’s two other candidates, John Connolly and County Councillor Mary Hoade were on 4% each and former Fine Gael now Independent Senator Fidelma Healy Eames was taking 3% of first preferences. Mike Cubbard (Ind), Seamus Sheridan (Green), Tommy Holohan (AAA) and Nicola Davoren (Renua) were all on 2% according to this poll. The four other candidates (Tommy Roddy, James Charity, Ruairí O’Neill and Patrick Feeney) polled 1% between them.
With half of the boxes in Galway City West tallied, the state of play in the six-seater is:
Donal Lyons (Ind) 23%
Pauline O’Reilly (Greens) 14.75%
Niall McNelis (Lab) 11.89%
John Connolly (FF) 9.86%
Pearce Flannery (FG) 9.48%
Peter Keane (FF) 7.3%
John Crowley (Soc Dems) 6.3%
Clodagh Higgins (FG) 5.9%
Salthill and Taylor’s Hill boxes being tallied now
There is a tired old cliché about people singing from ‘the same hymn sheet’ – but despite their diverse political backgrounds, it could certainly be applied in the case of Galway city’s two new TDs.
Because Fine Gael’s Deputy Hildegarde Naughten and independent TD Catherine Connolly hold common ground when it comes to a lot of issues relating to Galway city.
For example, in the aftermath of the general election they both agreed that University Hospital Galway should be moved to a greenfield site at Merlin Park. They also articulated this view on the first day of the new Dail last week.
And, separately, they were both in favour of the provision of dedicated bus lanes throughout Galway city with the acceptance that there will be no outer bypass for at least another decade. Deputy Connolly believes that the current proposal is simply “a cul-de-sac” and should never have been progressed.
Left-leaning Independent TD Catherine Connolly and right-leaning Fine Gael TD, Hildegarde Naughton, both believe UHG is at saturation point and are committed to the development of a new public hospital at the larger, more accessible site east of the city.
This, along with the promotion of public transport initiatives to help end traffic chaos in the city, is one of the common policy objectives the two new women TDs share.
They are only the second and third women TDs ever in Galway West, following in the footsteps of former Fianna Fáil minister, Máire Geoghegan Quinn.
Pressure is mounting on Galway West TD Noel Grealish to join Fianna Fail as the party attempts to be part of the next government.
The Fianna Fail organisation in the constituency are now convinced that Grealish may provide the party with the answer to winning a second seat in Galway West. And the organisation are disappointed that veteran TD Eamon O Cuiv has not delivered a second seat in the last two general elections. If Fianna Fail assume power, it is very unlikely that the Cornamona man will have a place at the front bench.
The party organisation in Galway West are now anxious that Grealish becomes part of their fabric and particularly as he is a proven vote-winner.
Grealish is part of an unofficial grouping in the Dail who are currently engaged with the two major parties with a view to forming a minority government.
The fact that the Carnmore man has been a TD since 2002, it is likely that he could be part of the front bench in the next government if he agrees to become part of the support that Fianna Fail require.
It was revealed last week that he had been approached by Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin to join up but he was not to be drawn on the issue.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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