Update 12.30pm: Candidates in Ireland South are still awaiting the first election in the 12-county constituency.
Counting is continuing at Nemo Rangers GAA Club, with Identity Ireland candidate Peter O’Loughlin the latest to be eliminated. He was knocked out on the seventh count.
Fine Gael MEP Sean Kelly continues to lead the way and is now just 321 votes short of the quota. It is expected that he will reach the quota in the next two counts.
The seventh count involved the distribution of Colleen Worthington’s votes, with Independents 4 Change candidate Mick Wallace picking up the biggest share of these at 556.
Mr Wallace remains in third, just over 1,000 votes behind Fianna Fáil’s Billy Kelleher.
Sinn Féin’s Liadh Ní Riada continues to perform well, with 79,945 votes, and Green Party candidate Grace O’Sullivan is a little further behind on 77,020.
Attention now turns to the distribution of Mr O’Loughlin’s 4,181 votes.
Meanwhile, A “simple recount” is underway in the Dublin European Election Count at the RDS.
Fianna Fáil candidate Barry Andrews wants the count staff to look again at Count 14, which was the distribution of Labour candidate Alex White’s transfers.
As things stand, Barry Andrews is ahead of Independents4Change candidate Clare Daly with Sinn Féin’s Lynn Boylan in fifth.
A dispute has emerged over whether Boylan’s vote should be distributed, which could put Daly ahead of Andrews and into third.
Whoever comes third will head to Brussels, while the fourth-placed candidate must wait for Brexit to occur.
In Cork, Sean Kelly has said he warned the EU Parliament that Ireland could face legal battles over cold storage seats when they were being distributed.
Mr Kelly said he expects the saga to end up in the courts.
A row over the transfer of votes and the so-called ‘cold storage’ Brexit seat brought a halt to counting in the European elections in Dublin last night and the Ireland South could see the same situation arising when it comes down the final fifth seat, which will only become available when Britain leaves the EU.
“It’s a bit of a mess but Brexit was always going to be a mess and this is just another part of it,” Fine Gael MEP Mr Kelly said.
Ireland has received two extra EU seats, one in Dublin and one in Ireland South but they can only be taken up after Brexit.
Speaking in the count centre in Cork, Mr Kelly said: “I remember well, it was mentioned and came up for discussion, I said: ‘For God’s sake don’t be distributing any seats until the British have actually left’.
“I had said that first of all it was discourteous, we were sitting down with British MEPs and talking about distributing their seats.
“Secondly I said there is a slight possibility at this stage that Brexit was not going to happen and what are you going to do then?
“And I said thirdly it would send out a good message that we are keeping all these seats in reserve for expansion.
“But they didn’t listen to me and now we are in a bit of a mess as a result,” he told the Irish Examiner.
Independent candidate Colleen Worthington from Waterford was eliminated in the sixth count, as staff at the Nemo Rangers count centre start to make their way through the 23-candidate ballot.
The most recent count saw the distribution of Paddy Fitzgerald’s 3,332 votes, with Dolores Cahill picking up the largest portion of these at 300.
Liam Minehan picked up 280, with Breda Patricia Gardner (228) and Mick Wallace (206) also taking a decent share of the transfers.
With Worthington eliminated, Identity Ireland candidate Peter O’Loughlin is now trailing, with 4,047 votes.
There has been little change at the top of the ballot, with Billy Kelleher, Mick Wallace, Liadh Ní Riada and Grace O’Sullivan still placed second to fifth.
Fianna Fáil’s Malcolm Byrne has 69,511 votes and Fine Gael MEP Deirdre Clune is 7th with 65,005. Ms Clune is likely to be dependent on transfers from her party Andrew Doyle if she is to retain her seat.
By Kevin O’Neill and Elaine Loughlin – Irish Examiner
