Fine Gael's Michael Creed took back the seat he lost to party colleague Gerard Murphy in 2002. Creed topped the poll, exceeding the quota by more than 700 votes and was elected on the third count.
Crucial transfers from Labour candidate Martin Coughlan, who was eliminated on the second count, put Creed over the quota. Creed and Coughlan are both from Macroom and few of the transfers went to the other four candidates, all of whom were from outside the town.
Sitting Fianna Fáil TD Michael Moynihan took the second seat in the constituency on the fourth count.
Veteran Fianna Fáil TD Donal Moynihan was eliminated on the third count and more than 5,700 of his transfers were divided between Michael Moynihan and Minister of State for the Environment Batt O'Keeffe.
Michael Moynihan took the bulk of the transfers, which put him comfortably over the quota. In the fifth and final count Moynihan's surplus largely stayed with Fianna Fáil and O'Keeffe took nearly 2,000 of them to win the last seat. Prior to the election Cork North West had been dubbed the "Constituency of Death" because of the expectation that it would be an extremely close contest.
O'Keeffe had moved from Cork South Central when his stronghold, the satellite town of Ballincollig, was moved into Cork North West. This led to the situation where three established Fianna Fáil TDs had to battle for the three seats with two high-profile Fine Gael candidates.
But Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil tallies accurately predicted the outcome at the Macroom count centre from early on Friday, so the expected drama failed to materialise.
Overall change: No change
Outgoing TDs
Michael Moynihan FF
Donal Moynihan FF
Gerard Murphy FG