Candidates endorsed by Independent TD Verona Murphy took five seats on Wexford County Council as Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael lost ground.

Fianna Fáil remains the largest party on the 34-seat local authority with nine councillors, down three on its 2019 performance. The party lost seats in the Gorey, New Ross and Kilmuckridge electoral areas. Fine Gael had eight candidates elected (down one) following the retirement of Jim Moore in the Rosslare area.

Independents polled an impressive 36.9 per cent of the vote, this included 12 candidates running under Ms Murphy’s Wexford Independent Alliance banner. Pat Barden, the only sitting councillor to join the group, topped the poll in New Ross and was elected on the first count. His running mate Marty Murphy was elected on the eighth count. Nicky Boland took a seat for the alliance in Gorey, as did Raymond Shannon in Wexford and Paddy Kavanagh in Kilmuckridge.

Aontú's Jim Codd polled the highest first preference vote of anyone in the county as he was returned in the Rosslare local electoral area. His first count haul of 2,455 exceeded the quota by some 700 votes. Independent Ger Carthy was also reelected in Rosslare on the first count.

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Incumbents proved hard to unseat in general, with Fianna Fáil retaining seats via Donal Kenny and Joe Sullivan (Gorey); Garry Laffan (Wexford); Aidan Browne and Barbara-Anne Murphy (Enniscorthy); Michael Sheehan and Jimmy Fleming (New Ross); Pip Breen (Kilmuckridge) and former senator Lisa McDonald (Rosslare).

It was a similar pattern for Fine Gael with Cathal Byrne (Enniscorthy), Bridín Murphy (New Ross), Jim Staples (Rosslare), Anthony Donohoe (Gorey) and Oliver Walsh (Kilmuckridge) returned. Robbie Staples held the Fine Gael seat vacated by former county footballer John Hegarty in Wexford and Pat Kehoe did likewise in Enniscorthy, where Kathleen Codd-Nolan did not seek reelection.

As was the case in many areas, Sinn Féin will be disappointed as its 11 candidates secured just three seats across the county, albeit an increase of one on 2019′s performance. Tom Forde was returned in Wexford as was Fionntán Ó Súilleabháin in Gorey, while newcomer Aoife Rose O’Brien took the last seat in Rosslare. David Hynes, a former Labour and Independent councillor, joined the party midterm but was not returned.

Labour performed strongly in the Wexford electoral area where George Lawlor topped the poll with almost 1,000 votes to spare. His transfers played a role in party colleague Catherine ‘Biddy’ Walsh getting over the line and nearly brought in their running mate Vicky Clancy Barron, who was pipped by Mr Shannon on the last count.

Enniscorthy: 6 seats

Gorey: 6 seats

Kilmuckridge: 4 seats

New Ross: 6 seats

Rosslare: 5 seats

Wexford: 7 seats

[ View 2019 Wexford County Council results ]

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