The outgoing Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council was an outlier in Irish politics with an even 20-20 split between male and female councillors, but this balance was shattered at the weekend with 27 men and just 13 women elected.

The results did produce another outlier, with the Green Party succeeding in retaining all six of its seats, a representative in each electoral area. The party’s Lauren Tuite was elected without reaching the quota on day three of the disputed count in Killiney-Shankill.

Minister of State and local TD Ossian Smyth said: “We lost votes but we ran the right number of candidates and will be the second largest party in the council. It’s difficult in Government to keep your seats, so I’m happy about that.”

The biggest winner here was Fine Gael, which not only retained all 13 of its seats but managed to gain three more, including a 22-year-old newcomer in Blackrock, Dan Carson. He overcame the challenge of Independent candidate and economic commentator Cormac Lucey after a complete recheck of all 11 counts. Mr Lucey said he lost out by “as close a margin as it could have been”.

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Minister of State Jennifer Carroll MacNeill described the result as “triple hat-trick in Dún Laoghaire” with three councillors elected in each Blackrock, Dún Laoghaire and Killiney-Shankill. In Stillorgan, Fine Gael got a massive 53 per cent of the vote and three seats.

Fianna Fáil has not fared as well, falling from seven councillor to five, but the party faced challenges with two Balckrock councillors – former minister Mary Hanafin and Cllr Kate Feeney – opting not to stand.

Labour retained its five seats and saw newcomer Thomas Joseph, an IT consultant heavily involved in community development, who has lived in Ireland for longer than he did in his native India, elected in the Dún Laoghaire area.

The Social Democrats held on to a seat on the council but it shifted from Dún Laoghaire to Stillorgan thanks to the newly elected John Hurley, who said it had been “a long time since there was a centre left representative in Stillorgan”.

Aontú failed to make a breakthrough but came close in Dundrum, where Liam Coughlan stayed in contention until the last count.

The surge in Independents did not happen here, with their seat total falling from seven to five. One loss was accounted for by Deirdre Donnelly losing her seat in Stillorgan. Independent Michael Fleming topped the poll in Glencullen-Sandyford with a massive vote while Sean McLoughlin in Dundrum saw his vote increase.

People Before Profit now has two seats, one in Dún Laoghaire, retained by Cllr Melisa Halpin in the Dún Laoghaire area. The second is in Killiney-Shankill where former cllr Dave O’Keeffe won the last of seven seats in a very tight contest with Sinn Féin newcomer Roland Kennedy, a Fórsa trade union health services organiser.

After a full recheck of all 11 counts, the former councillor won by six votes. The result has dashed Sinn Féin’s hopes of any seats on the council after they lost the three they held in 2019.

Blackrock: 6 seats

Dundrum: 7 seats

Dún Laoghaire: 7 seats

Glencullen – Sandyford: 7 seats

Killiney – Shankill: 7 seats

Stillorgan: 6 seats

[ View 2019 Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Counil results ]

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