George Lee: former RTé economics editor elected in Dublin South

FORMER RTé economics editor and Fine Gael candidate George Lee and independent candidate Maureen O’Sullivan won the two Dublin by-elections yesterday.


At the start of an historic day for Fine Gael, George Lee won the late Fianna Fáil TD Seamus Brennan’s seat votes in the first count, with 27,768 first preferences, in a landslide Dublin South by-election victory.


Arriving at the RDS count centre with Lee, party leader Enda Kenny dubbed the win as a “truly spectacular victory” as it was “the largest vote in the history of our party”.


No candidate has won a by-election on the first count since Taoiseach Brian Cowen in 1984 when he entered the Dáil for the first time after the death of his father Ber.


Lee said he was “delighted and humbled” by the election victory and added, “I’m looking forward to representing them [the people of Dublin South] speaking up on their behalf, holding the government to account, bringing in a new era… an era of responsibility. ”


Elsewhere, independent candidate Maureen O’Sullivan, who has been an English teacher for 35 years, was at a Dublin school waiting on her Leaving Certificate class to complete their re-scheduled English paper when she got calls from the RDS to say tallies suggested she would win the late Tony Gregory’s seat.


O’Sullivan,who was the election agent for Gregory whose death caused the Dublin Central by-election, got 7,639 first-preference votes (almost 27%) as she benefited from a collapse in support for Fianna Fáil. She said, “It is a great tribute to Tony Gregory who stood for and fought for the issues that the communities in Dublin Central brought to him.”


Despite Fine Gael’s Paschal Donohoe running a strong campaign and doubling his 2007 general election vote, the ‘Gregory candidate’ emerged as the obvious winner after the first count.


One commentator said, “The Bertie factor is dead” as former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s brother Maurice suffered a poor by-election result and the early tallies had him standing at just 12% of the vote – less than a quarter of the 44.5% Fianna Fáil secured in the 2007 general election.