The 20th count for the South constituency saw the redistribution of the 69,197 votes of Grace O’Sullivan of the Green Party who had been eliminated following the distribution of the surplus of Billy Kelleher on the 19th county.
While Mick Wallace did well from that redistribution, it was not enough for him to overtake Cynthia Ní Mhurchú.
The five seats then will go to Seán Kelly of Fine Gael, Billy Kelleher and Cynthia Ní Mhurchú of Fianna Fáil, Independent Michael McNamara and Kathleen Funchion of Sinn Féin.
Kelleher had been elected following the distribution of the votes of John Mullins of Fine Gael. His surplus of 5344 went mainly, as might have been expected, to his Fianna Fáil party colleague Cynthia Ní Mhurchú who picked up 3377, or 63%, of that vote. Interestingly, independent Michael McNamara did next best with 785 votes, 29 more than Kelleher’s fellow government MEP Grace O’Sullivan of the Greens.
The Kelleher distribution placed Wallace behind Ní Mhurchú and effectively ended any chance he had of holding on to his seat, given that a significantly larger share of O’Sullivan’s transfers to him rather than the Fianna Fáil candidate was always highly unlikely.