Mairead McGuinness has just been elected the first MEP to the European Parliament in Ireland.
The Fine Gael poll topper was elected on the first count in the Midlands North West constituency this afternoon.
She scored a whopping 134,630 votes out of a total of 594,927 cast.
This saw her sail past the quota of 118,986.
The outgoing vice president of the European parliament’s huge personal vote should also help her running mate, former Rose of Tralee Maria Walsh, get across the line in later counts.
This is because when a candidate gets more than the quota for a seat, their surplus votes are distributed according to the number two preferences marked on the ballot papers.
Ms Walsh is lying in fourth place on 64,500, in the four seat constituency.
Ahead of her are Sinn Féin’s Matt Carthy and rebel independent Luke Ming Flanagan, both of whom are on course to get elected this evening or tomorrow.
The Green Party suffered its first real disappointment of the campaign when new candidate Saoirse McHugh polled poorer than expected with 51,019, behind Peter Casey on 56,650.
