Tipperary councillor crosses the line despite congested election field

Marie Murphy was elected to Tipperary County Council in the Cahir Local Electoral Area on the fifth count.
For most of the day, Cllr Murphy knew she was going to be elected.

The electoral process involved, however,forced her to sit through a number of counts before the inevitable happened.
Her election to the third seat was delayed as the number of votes being transferred from eliminated candidates was too small to make a significant impact.

The Clogheen-based councillor crossed the line in the fifth count after falling agonisingly short in the third count by 14 votes and by 9 votes in the fourth count.
She got over the line with the distribution of the votes of Social Democrat Candidate Alan Moynihan.
In that distribution she received  28  votes to take her over the 1,437 quota with 1,456 votes.

WELL PLACED
She was always well placed for the third seat after getting 1,153 first preference votes, compared to 1,226 in 2019.
Cllr Murphy did better than everyone else with transfers from Cllr McGrath and Cllr Moloney as they were declared elected.
A transfer from Moloney of 103 votes saw her 14 off the quota in the third count.
Just five votes came her way with after the elimination of Shane Smith leaving her nine short in the fourth count.

It was the 28 transfers from Alan Moynihan, the Social Democrat candidate, that finally got her over the line in the fifth count as she was surrounded by family, friends and party members as her election triumph was confirmed by the returning officer for the Cahir Local Electoral Area Michael Moroney.

“At the doors people commented on the work I had done to upgrade St Theresa’s Hospital in Clogheen.
“It is a fabulous local facility.
“As Minister for Health Simon Harris visited the hospital in 2017 and we showed him the plans and in fairness to him he honoured the commitment he made at that time with funding,” said Cllr Murphy.

Cllr Murphy said she was a bit anxious because of the congested line up of candidates in the Clogheen area.
“We had three in the parish of Ballylooby, three in the parish of Clogheen and one in Ballyporeen. Seven out of the ten candidates were from the one area and we did not know how the vote would go. Thankfully the work paid off for me,” she said.
“The turnout was a bit down on 2019 and I don’t know why. The issues on the door were all local issues,” she said.

HEALTH SERVICES
Cllr Murphy said that health services along with the conditions of the roads and medical cards were the main issues brought up by the voters.
Looking ahead Cllr Murphy said she was looking forward to seeing real progress made on housing in the next term of the council and she welcomed the progress being made on a new car park in the town centre and the development of a state of the art library.
Cllr Murphy made the point that Tipperary County Council had a budget of €161m in 2019 and the budget passed last November was €230m.

BUDGET
“That is a phenomenal increase. I don’t buy into the commentary that the north of Tipperary received more of that budget than the south of the county,” she said.
“I am looking forward to working the other three councillors returned. We might not always agree but we do our best to find solutions for what is nbest for all of the people of Cahir,” said Cllr Murphy.