Public Affairs Update Election 24 | June 2024
European Elections:
14 MEPs were elected on the 13thof June 2024, after five days of counting.
Final Results:
Midlands North West (5)
- Luke “Ming” Flanagan (Ind)
- Barry Cowen (Fianna Fáil)
- Maria Walsh (Fine Gael)*
- Nina Carberry (Fine Gael*)
- Ciarán Mullooly (Ind Ireland)*
*Elected without reaching the quota.
**Outgoing MEP, Chris MacManus (Sinn Féin) lost his seat.
Ireland South (5)
- Seán Kelly (Fine Gael)
- Billy Kelleher (Fianna Fáil)
- Michael McNamara (Ind)*
- Cynthya Ní Mhurchú (Fianna Fáil)*
- Kathleen Funchion (Sinn Féin)*
*Elected without reaching the quota.
**Outgoing MEP’s, Grace O’Sullivan (Green Party) and Mick Wallace (Ind for Change) lost their seats.
Dublin (4)
- Barry Andrews (Fianna Fáil)
- Regina Doherty (Fine Gael)
- Lynn Boylan (Sinn Féin)*
- Aodhán Ó Riordáin (Labour)*
*Elected without reaching the quota.
**Two outgoingMEP’s, Ciarán Cuffe (Green Party) & Clare Daly (Ind for Change) lost their seats.
https://www.rte.ie/news/elections-2024/results/#/european/national
General Comment:
The failure of Sinn Féin to return any candidate in the Midlands North West constituency was perhaps the most dramatic and surprising outcome from the European elections. The loss of two Green Party seats in the Dublin and Ireland South constituencies is considered a huge blow to the party. However, the election of two candidates each from Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil in the Midlands North West and the Ireland South constituencies as well as Fianna Fáil regaining the seat they lost in 2009 in Midlands North West was a surprise which greatly contradicted recent opinion polls.
European Elections Across Europe:
· Far Right make Gains in European Elections
· French President Emmanuel Macron calls Snap Election
Across Europe, the far and populist right made notable gains in the European Parliament elections raising questions over what the political future of the continent will look like.
French President Emmanuel Macron called a snap election after his party suffered calamitous results in EU elections - while in Belgium, poor general election results led to its prime minister pledging his resignation.
Marine Le Pen's hard right National Rally party won about 32% of the European Parliament vote in France, a 10-point increase on the last election in 2019. It is more than double the 15% taken by centrist, pro-European Renaissance party.
Local Elections:
After five days of counting, 949 councillors were finally elected across 31 councils. The final outcome saw Government parties securing the vast majority of seats and consequently control of most councils:
Final Results:
https://www.rte.ie/news/elections-2024/results/#/local/national
Limerick Mayoral Election:
History was made in Limerick on the 12th of June when it became the first City and County in Ireland to directly elect a Mayor with executive functions.
Fifteen candidates contested Ireland’s first ever Mayoral Elections and the Independent candidate, John Moran was elected.
John Moran captured 18,308 first preference votes, some 5,405 first preference votes ahead of his nearest rival, Helen O’Donnell (Ind). Mr Moran largely maintained that gap through the 12 counts that followed, before being elected without reaching the quota.
https://www.rte.ie/news/limerick-mayoral-election-2024/results/
Short Bio of John Moran:
- Former secretary-general at the Department of Finance.
- Mr. Moran has an adverse background, combining expertise in finance, law, and urban planning.
- Born in Birmingham, Mr. Moran was raised in Limerick after his parents moved back when he was four.
- Attended Coláiste Mhichíl on Sexton Street, after which he graduated from University College Dublin in 1986 with a law degree.
- Mr. Moran left Ireland in the 1980s to work in a variety of roles abroad.
- After passing the New York Bar exams, he worked for a time as a lawyer on Wall Street with Sullivan & Cromwell, before taking a job with aircraft leasing company GPA. Later he worked for McCann Fitzgerald, taking charge of the Irish law firm’s New York office where he advised US clients setting up operations in Ireland.
- He was also headed Zurich Bank’s Asian operations.
- He joined the Central Bank in 2010 as head of wholesale banking supervision.
- Mr. Moran joined the Department of Finance in 2011, initially to lead its involvement in rescuing the then ailing banking sector.
- He served as secretary general of the department between 2012 and 2014, working closely with former finance minister Michael Noonan.
- Mr. Moran brokered the State’s sale of Bank of Ireland shares to US financiers Wilbur Ross and Prem Watsa at the height of the financial crisis in 2011 and the promissory note arrangement to fund the repayment of the creditors of Anglo.
- He served on the European Investment Bank’s board between 2013 and 2018.
- Mr. Moran chaired the Land Development Agency between 2019 and 2021.
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