After three days of counting and recounting one of the country's longest serving councillors was ruled out of a seat on Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council tonight.
Jane Dillon Byrne (Lab) who had been a councillor in the Dun Laoghaire ward since 1974, lost her seat to first-time Fine Gael candidate Mary Fayne by nine votes.
The recount for Dun Laoghaire had been adjourned on Sunday night when there were 18 votes between the two women and the ballot papers were transferred from the count centre in Citywest to the town hall in Dun Laoghaire.
Deputy returning officer Tom McHugh made the announcement shortly after 8pm last night after ballots were recounted and scrutinised in the town’s county hall for more than 10 hours.
John Bailey (FG) topped the poll with 2,423 1st preference votes, Cormac Devlin (FF) was elected second, Melisa Halpin (PBP) was third to reach the quota of 1,664 and Karl Gill (PBP), Patricia Stewart (FG), Ossian Smyth (GP) Michael Merrigan (Ind) and Mary Fayne (FG) were elected without reaching the quota. The Labour Party lost both of its seats in the ward, making it the only local authority area in Dun Laoghaire Rathdown without a Labour councillor.
Speaking afterwards, Ms Dillon Byrne thanked staff, her family, friends and supporters. She said it had been a “serious honour” to represent Dun Laoghaire.
“Albert Einstein defined madness as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result – perhaps I have done that and the madness has passed,” Ms Dillon Byrne said.
Ms Fayne was not present at the recount.
The new council, which has increased in size from 28 to 40, will be made up of 11 Fine Gael councillors, eight from Fianna Fail, seven from Labour, six independents, three each from People Before Profit and Sinn Féin and two from the Green Party. More than 40 per cent of the councillors are women, twice the national average, and it was the first time any Sinn Féin councillors have been elected in the local authority area.
The outgoing coalition of Fine Gael and Labour will not be sufficient to create a majority in the new council and last night there was speculation of a three-way alliance to include Fianna Fail. The alternative, including independents or smaller parties in an alliance, could result in a more volatile council.
The council will meet for the first time on June 6th when its first Cathaoirleach will be elected.
