Fitzmaurice's success down to 'hard work': Mullooly

Independent Ireland MEP Ciaran Mullooly has attributed the success of Michael Fitzmaurice in Roscommon/Galway to his work ethic.

Mullooly, speaking at the count centre in Roscommon this evening said: “Michael Fitzmaurice is a hard worker. People know him from every corner of the constituency.”

“I saw it myself during the European Parliament elections. Every place we went people were coming up to him and saying ‘Thank you for doing that, thank you for following up on that issue for me’”

“At the end of the day, it’s hard work that pays off, and particularly today, it’s a very sweet victory for him because he is part of a trio of TDs who started new party and that’s not easily done in this country,” he said, citing the election of Michael Collins and Richard O’Donoghue.

“He’s got a tremendous result. The three of them are returned, and now we are in with a chance of three or maybe even four new candidates getting to the Dáil, if we can get the transfers over the course of the next 48 hours.”

Mullooly insisted that his party would participate in talks in the formation of a government.

“They are prepared to talk to the senior party, the party with the most seats.

“There is going to be a price for it. Everybody knows that. We have a strong rural bias built into our manifesto,” he stressed.

Mullooly also opened the doors for an alliance with other independents.

“I think if we could get to that six or seven seat situation tonight, we also might have an opportunity to form alliances with other independent TDs, it is public knowledge that in the past that Boxer Moran in Athlone and Michael Fitzmaurice have worked together for quite a long time in trying to form a Government previously.

“I have spoken to Boxer Moran about this before the election – he certainly hasn’t ruled it out. We’ll wait to see when the votes are counted what happens in the coming days.”