Independent Senators Lynn Ruane and Tom Clonan have been re-elected to the Seanad in the Trinity College Dublin constituency.
A recount has been requested for the final seat on the Trinity panel after just 31 votes separated Green Party councillor Hazel Chu and entrepreneur Aubrey McCarthy on the 15th and final count.
Mr McCarthy had 3,741 votes while Ms Chu ended the last count with 3,710 votes following the distribution of former rugby international Hugo MacNeill’s vote after his elimination on the 14th count.
The recount, if granted, would start at 9.30 am.
Earlier, Senator Tom Clonan’s transfers had pushed Ms Chu ahead of Mr McCarthy at 3,163 votes to 2,747.
Ms Chu received 547 transfers from Mr MacNeill, while Mr McCarthy secured 994. There were 935 non-transferable votes.
In the vocational cultural and educational panel, Sinn Féin’s Pauline Tully - who lost her Cavan-Monaghan Dáil seat in a shock defeat – was re-elected on the second count. She received 189 votes, just two off the quota of 191 in the first count. Fine Gael’s Cathal Byrne on 141 votes was also set to be elected on the five-seat panel.
The TCD Senators’ elections follow that of outgoing Independent Senators Michael McDowell, Rónán Mullen and Alice Mary Higgins, who have been re-elected to the three-seat National Union of Ireland (NUI) Seanad constituency.
In the Trinity constituency, Ms Ruane was first to exceed the 4,450 quota, reaching 4,806 votes when she received most transfers following Labour candidate Sadhbh O’Neill’s elimination.
Green party former minister Ossian Smyth was eliminated on 1,945 votes following the distribution of Ms Ruane’s surplus. Mr Clonan received 592 transfers from Mr Smyth pushing him over the quota.
Green party Cllr Hazel Chu received 761 transfers from her party colleague to overtake Mr MacNeill who received 218 votes, taking him to 2,359.
Former minister Katherine Zappone was eliminated on the ninth count.
The election of Mr Mullen and Ms Higgins follows that of poll topper Michael McDowell, returned on the first count late on Wednesday night.
On the ninth and final count at the RDS, Mr Mullen exceeded the 9,029 quota with 9,107 votes, following the elimination of former solicitor and political adviser Linda O’Shea Farren and criminologist Marie Keenan.
Ms Higgins was elected without reaching the quota with 8,822 votes, as the remaining surplus would not assist the next candidates: consultant geriatrician Rónán Collins (4,357 votes) and the Green Party’s Eva Dowling (4,226 votes).
Mr Mullen paid tribute to Mr McDowell’s “remarkable, stomping” performance, in which he had a vote of 11,390 with a surplus of 2,361, and almost 2,500 votes more than in the last election.
He also speculated that Mr McDowell might run for the presidency. “Who knows whether it’s the only election that he will fight this year,” Mr Mullen said. “He wouldn’t thank me to speculate on that particular question.”
Just 24 votes were spoiled in TCD with a 17,797 valid poll. One paper stated “1 person 1 vote” and a second stating “Sh*tehawk Central” where the voting numbers should have been.
In both the NUI and Trinity constituencies, the small number of spoiled ballots included those in which witness signature forms were not included or not correctly filled in.
At the next Seanad election expected in 2029 an expanded list of graduates from 15 colleges will vote for six higher education senators, all on one panel.
The counting in Leinster House of the five vocational panels, where 111 candidates are competing for 43 seats, is expected to run into bank holiday Monday.
Following the completion of the seven panel counts Taoiseach Micheál Martin will nominate 11 Senators to complete the Seanad’s 60 Upper House members.
