“The Healy-Rae flag is flying good in Kerry,” Michael Healy Rae has said, after predicting his son will be re-elected as a councillor.
The independent TD spent the morning tallying votes for his Jackie Healy-Rae from a box from Castleisland, County Kerry and was at pains to make clear that the family’s tallies are always “very accurate”.
His figures suggest Jackie Healy-Rae will top the poll with 30.2% of the first preference vote, independent Charlie Farrelly is on 18.4%, Fianna Fáil’s Fionnán FitzGerald will get 15.7% and independent Michelle Keane has the support of 10.1% of voters.
“I obviously have to say, I’m very grateful to everybody in the Castleisland Electoral Area who gave my son, Jackie, a number one vote,” he said.
“We’re terribly indebted and he’s going to be a servant again for the future.
“This is his second council election and we’re terribly grateful to the people who put him so far ahead in this race.”
Deputy Healy-Rae’s nephew, Johnny, and niece, Maura, are also running for election but he declined to predict how they would fare once their votes are counted.
“We can’t ever predict or presume anything until the votes are tallied,” he said.
“All I know is whatever we get has to come out and we’ll count them as they come out and we’ll be fairly accurate in our tallies.
“The late John O'Donohue who was the chairman of our group, sadly he passed away, he was always in charge of our tally team.
“He always said a Healy-Rae tally is 99.9% correct.”
National picture
As for the national picture, Deputy Healy-Rae said he had no information and so could not give a clue.
“I have to be honest and tell you, I’ve been tallying myself all morning for my son,” he said.
“So, there could be a bomb after going off in the rest of the country and if it didn’t go off in Kerry, I wouldn’t actually know about it.”
Staff counting the ballot papers for the Local and European elections in the RDS Dublin. Photo: Sasko Lazarov/© RollingNews.ieNationally the happiest party at the moment is Fine Gael with the party likely to lose seats but is over performing expectations.
It is the reverse for Sinn Féin who will pick up seats but look set to underperform their 2020 result and could drop below 20%.
Fianna Fáil are keeping quiet at the moment with the party likely to lose seats.
Independents will also be big winners, with many expected to pick up seats across the country.
Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil look likely to take a seat in all three Euro constituencies and transfers between the two parties’ supporters could decide final seats across the country at both a local and European level.
Main image: Indepenent TD Michael Healy-Rae. Photo: RollingNews.ie
