Sinn Fein transfers ‘put Funchion in contention’ for MEP seat in Ireland South

Transfers have put Sinn Fein’s Kathleen Funchion “in contention” to be elected as one of Ireland’s 14 MEPs.

Ms Funchion got 61% of transfers from her running mate Paul Gavan’s eliminated share, propelling her into second place.

The huge transfer rate has positioned the Carlow-Kilkenny TD to take one of the five seats in the Ireland South constituency, though political commentators have said transfers make it “impossible” to predict.

Fianna Fail MEP Billy Kelleher is on 100,832 and is creeping closer to the quota.

In the hunt behind Ms Funchion, on 71,350 votes, are Independent Clare TD Michael McNamara (67,507 votes), Fianna Fail’s Cynthia Ni Mhurchu (61,780), and outgoing MEP Mick Wallace (61,668).

There is an outside chance for outgoing Green Party MEP Grace O’Sullivan (54,978), though it looks increasingly unlikely.

Observers at the count centre will watch closely whether other candidates can attract enough transfers to leap ahead.

Mr Wallace is expecting to do well from the 26,167 votes of Independent Ireland’s Eddie Punch, who was eliminated after the 14th count, while Ms Ni Mhurchu is expected to pull transfers from Fine Gael’s John Mullins.

Sinn Fein TD David Cullinane said there was still “a long, long way to go, there’s a lot of transfers out there”.

“We were hoping to have a very strong transfer rate so I think we’ve got well over 60% which is the hope for us coming into the count today so obviously it puts Kathleen in contention,” he said on Wednesday evening.

“So it’s still impossible to call who’s going to get the last number of seats but obviously we’re competing which is what you want to be. I don’t think anybody can call it still. All we can do is keep watching the number of transfers.

“I still think that Grace O’Sullivan’s transfers, if she’s eliminated, will probably decide the outcome of it for two of the candidates.

“I think Grace is a bit too far behind at this point. Eventually if she is eliminated her transfers will decide, I think, who is taking the final two seats.”

Ms O’Sullivan said “I’m here with the swansong” at the Cork count centre as transfers saw the former Greenpeace activist fall behind.

She added: “You can see it’s definitely slipping away now but I’ve been realistic all the time from the get-go when the preference votes were being put on the tables and I acknowledged that it was substantially down on my 2019 vote.”

Ms O’Sullivan said she has not been as “extraordinarily” transfer friendly as she was in the 2019 European election, and said it “feels that momentum has gone” from the Green Party.

“People have other things on their minds, and that concerns me because as an ecological party and as an ecologist myself, climate change has not gone away by any doubt.”

She said that all three parties in the coalition Government are responsible for public services, climate, health and water quality.

Ms O’Sullivan added: “That’s why I’m concerned about Ireland. Without the strong voices in Europe, without Ciaran Cuffe and I, we were hard-working and we were strong, we were active on legislation and without the Irish Greens at the table, we will lose ground in terms of the environmental reach.”

The “meticulous” count continued in Cork on Wednesday to fill four of the five seats for the Ireland South constituency, with all five seats left to be filled in Midlands-Northwest.

Fine Gael’s Sean Kelly was elected on the first count on Monday night, leaving 22 candidates vying for four seats in the 10-county constituency.

Returning officer Martin Harvey said he is hopeful they will have a final result by mid afternoon on Thursday, but said the “significant” transfer from Mr Gavan to Ms Funchion showed how one count can dramatically change standings.

Deirdre Clune, who was the last MEP to be elected to the Ireland South constituency in 2019, said the transfers were difficult to predict.

She said: “That seems to be the common theme from every political camp you speak to – nobody knows, there is no pattern at all.

“It’s not geography, it’s not female, it doesn’t even seem to be party political or whether you’re right wing or left leaning.

“So it’s very difficult to predict how these last seats will go.

“There could be a pocket of votes there, a surprise 10,000 votes for somebody, a 5,000 that they weren’t expecting that would push them ahead of another, so anybody who thinks they can predict this, I think, they’re trying to fool us, because you can’t. There is no way of predicting it.”