Minister of State Martin Heydon has secured his Dáil seat in Kildare South as counting continues in General Election 2024.
The Fine Gael TD, who has responsibility for new market development, farm safety, and research and development at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, was elected after the 11th count in the constituency.
He is the second candidate elected for Kildare South, as the Ceann Comhairle, Seán Ó Fearghaíl, is returned automatically to the Dáil.
Of the candidates actually contesting the election for the constituency, Heydon maintained a lead over the other candidates from the earliest counts, and his election never seemed in doubt.
While Minister Heydon is comfortably over the line now, Minster for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue has another few nervous hours ahead of him.
At present in five seat Donegal, two Sinn Féin candidates have been elected, including Pearse Doherty. Of the remaining candidates, Minister McConalogue’s party colleague Pat The Cope Gallagher is leading, followed by the minister.
However, the gap between Minister McConalogue and the chasing candidates is a slim one.
His department colleague, the Green Party’s Pippa Hackett, was unsuccessful in her bid to win a seat in Offaly.
The Green Party have been the big losers of this election. Whether they retain any seats at all in the next Dáil remains to be seen.
Elsewhere in this General Election, several of the most prominent rural TDs have retained their seats.
These include Independent Ireland’s Michael Fitzmaurice, and independents Carol Nolan and Mattie McGrath.
Fitzmaurice was comfortably re-elected to the Dáil after the first count in Roscommon-Galway, surpassing the quota in the constituency by almost 2,000 first preference votes.
In the same constituency, former Sinn Féin agriculture spokesperson Claire Kerrane has also been elected.
Ireland went to the polls on Friday (November 29) to decide which 174 TDs will sit in the 34th Dáil.
Voting began at 7:00a.m that morning and polling stations closed at 10:00p.m that night.
There are nearly 700 candidates running in this General Election, spread around 43 constituencies, with each constituency electing between three and five TDs.
This Dáil, when elected, will be the largest in the history of the state, and 88 seats are required for a majority.