Independent Ireland Councillor Noel Thomas has vowed to return and take a Dáil seat in Galway West in three years’ time, after losing out on transfers.
It comes as Fine Gael’s Seán Kyne was elected this evening following the 11th count. Bringing the Galway West by-election to an end.
Cllr Noel Thomas of Independent Ireland, who rose to prominence for his criticism of the Government’s handling of immigration policy and for his involvement in the fuel protests, lost out after winning the highest number of first-preference votes in the constituency.
Thomas took home 20.9 per cent of first preference votes, followed closely to Kyne on 20.1 per cent.
In the end however, Kyne won the race with 19,218 votes, taking the seat left vacant by President Catherine Connolly – with Thomas receiving a final total of 16,519 votes.
Kyne benefitted greatly from the distribution of Labour’s Cllr Helen Ogbu’s votes. taking 4,249 transfers from Ogbu – significantly higher than Thomas, who added 1,273 votes to his final total from Ogbu on the last count.
It is only the fourth time in 44 years that a Government candidate has won a bye-election. Meanwhile, Daniel Ennis of the Social Democrats was elected in Dublin Central in the early hours of this morning.
Speaking at the end of a long two-day count, Cllr Thomas, who left Fianna Fáil in 2024 over the immigration crisis, said: “Unfortunately the result didn’t go our way this time – but I’ve got to say one thing, it’s been incredibly impressive.
“I topped the poll here in Galway and continued to hold that lead, all the way to the last count,” he added.
“I’m delighted with myself […] a little bit disappointed with the result, but to see the support that I got around this whole campaign was absolutely incredible.
“The campaign team I had around me were incredible as well […] I’ve got to say you can see a very clear pattern here. Independent Ireland are a growing party and we will be here for a long time to come.
“I can see nothing else than we are going to gain in strength. And I look forward to the next elections coming up because I think that we are going to see an awful lot more seats for Independent Ireland at this next election.
“A different challenge when you’re dealing with a by-election because you’ve got the full force of the political parties behind the candidates – we didn’t have that same ammo, but at the same time, I think we fought an even more impressive campaign with what we had. A brilliant result – looking forward to the next one.”
Kyne, who lost his seat in the 2020 general election and failed to gain it back in 2024, speaking this evening, said: “I’m elated, delighted, relieved. I’ve had bad days in this count centre.
‘I lost my seat here and failed to get it back as well, so delighted and thrilled that this opportunity came along for starters, and that we were able to grasp it.”
“I haven’t been divisive, I have worked with people across parties, across opposition and government, and perhaps that’s some of the explanation,” he said.
There were 47,893 valid votes cast in a constituency where the turnout was 44 per cent., and the quota to be elected was 23,947 votes.
Earlier, on The Week in Politics, Michael Collins, leader of Independent Ireland, said Thomas had doubled his vote, but admitted that the vote would be determined by Fianna Fáil transfers as well as Ogbu’s votes.
He said, however, that the rise of Thomas had been an “incredible” development, describing it as a strong door-to-door campaign which focused on issues and listened to people on housing, cost of living and “the disconnect between the political system and the people.”
Tonight, Collins said he was “disappointed” by the result, however he said he was sure that Cllr Thomas was “a man of the people” after receiving more than 10,000 votes – something he said was “astonishing.”
He said it was “a very difficult time to lose any battle,” but the battle would be fought again.
Meanwhile, speaking moments after she was eliminated from the count on Sunday evening, Labour Councillor Helen Ogbu, who polled in third place with 12,960 votes, said: “Labour is back with a bang. At the next general, just look out. We deserve not just one seat – two seats.”