Labour in the North West: The Labour Party was "not particularly surprised" at its showing in the North West, according to Mr Hughie Baxter, who failed in his attempt to win seats in the European Parliament and Roscommon County Council at the weekend.
"We're engaged in a long-term project to try and build the Labour Party throughout the North West, and outside of our main areas in Sligo and Galway in particular, and we need to increase that vote in the next general election and I think there is something there to work with."
Mr Baxter said: "We have had slow but increasing gains in the North West area."
However, he admitted he was "somewhat disappointed" at his performance in the Strokestown electoral area.
Mr Baxter was attempting to become the first Labour councillor in Roscommon County Council in 40 years. He polled just 315 first-preference votes, with a quota of 995 needed.
"I always knew it was going to be difficult," he said. "We had looked at running in other electoral areas within Roscommon, but my preference was to run in my local area and there was quite a strong field of candidates there.
"Of course running two campaigns is not easy, but I think the gain in exposure I got from the European campaign probably more than outweighed that factor. I really did dedicate most of my campaign to the local campaign," he added.
"We as a party will look at the results overall in the North West. I'd be looking to run in the general election but, again, we have a lot of building to do," he concluded.