Second count in Galway West as O’Cuiv waits

Ciara Galvin
Galway

Fianna Fail’s Eamon O’Cuiv believes he still has some time to wait to be deemed elected in the Galway West constituency.
The Connemara man received 35 transfer votes in the second count at the NUI Galway count centre. Niall O Tuathaill (SD) and Trevor O’Clothartaigh (SF) were joint second-biggest beneficiaries of transfers from the three eliminated candidates Roddy (Ind), Feeney (Ind) and O’Neill (DDI), with 33 votes each.
Speaking to The Mayo News at the count centre, Mr O’Cuiv said he expected a good vote from the south Mayo area, and when asked would he be keeping his constituency office open in Ballinrobe the soon-to-be poll topper ensured he would.
“I think that’s important. Since the constituency change took place, I’ve been very regular in doing my clinics in Ballinrobe because I believe you should go to the people and not the people coming to you.”

Lay of the land
“It’s very close and very early in the day but one thing I’ve always felt is, if you look at the city, the city tends to vote for the city and it has a population of 60,000 … It seems unlikely to get four TDs outside the city and one in the city; the numbers don’t seem to stack up,” said O’Cuiv.
“The last three seats are between Catherine Connolly (Ind), Trevor O’Clochartaigh and Hildegarde Naughton, and as I said, the big factor is that the city votes tend to stay within the city.”
Asked about his views on a Fianna Fail/Fine Gael coalition, Mr O’Cuiv said ‘The people have given this Government their marching orders’.
“The people have told this Government, enough is enough … Haven’t the people just thrown out Fine Gael, and if we put them back in we would be defying the people.”
Mr O’Cuiv believes that colleague Mary Hoade will push him over the line, but he is unsure if that will happen today or tomorrow. All depends on how quickly the subsequent counts are processed.
Renua’s Nichola Davoren was eliminated in the second count, and her 994 total will now be distributed.