Troy wins fourth in row Dáil seat

It’s four out of four for Fianna Fáil’s Robert Troy, who has been returned to Dáil Éireann again after what he admitted has been a tough two years.

“It’s been a long two days. I always knew I was going to be elected based on my first preference vote, and it was just a matter of waiting for the counts to evolve,” said the Ballynacargy man.

“Obviously, I’m pleased to have it official. This is my fourth general election in a row, and I’ve been elected at every one of those. It’s a great honour and privilege to be elected to represent the people of Longford Westmeath.

“The first was in 2011, an annihilation for my party and I won a seat on that occasion. In 2016 I topped the poll, and in 2020 I brought in a running mate.

“In this election, well, I suppose I have had my troubles over the last two years. It’s good to see that the people of Longford Westmeath still have trust in me, and acknowledged that my error was a mistake, and a genuine error.”

Troy was returned in the final count in the early hours of Monday morning after a successful weekend for Fianna Fáil, who became the biggest single party in the state, putting them in a position to lead on government formation talks.

A former minister of state for trade, Deputy Troy is keen to serve government in whatever way he can in future, but emphasises that there must be a big focus on restoring efficiency and reducing waste in the public service.

“There’s no accountability in the public service, and we’ve seen that so many times in the last number of months,” he said. “I think government need to focus on public service reform, and tackle the inability of senior public service officials to take decisions, implement them and ensure we have efficient administration.

“Then that will roll on to the provision of major services, such as those for disability and mental health. They’re not in a good space, even though additional money has been allocated to them over a number of years.”

Troy was delighted with the support he garnered from his “heartland” – his native Ballynacargy and other districts in the Moate electoral area.

“My vote in Mullingar was back. I knew that was always going to be the case because it was very competitive,” he said.

“We had a sitting cabinet minister there, who reminded everybody every day and every opportunity he could that Mullingar needed a cabinet minister and had one for the first time in 100 years.

“And I wish him well, genuinely, but I remind him now that he has to deliver for the next five years if he retains a seat at the cabinet table. I expect he will and hope he does, for the sake of Mullingar.

“In government, I have always had a good working relationship with Peter and I will continue to work with him for the benefit of Mullingar. We have done so in the past on issues like the hospital, and issues for sporting clubs, businesses and the regional sports centre.”

Deputy Troy paid tribute to his running mate, Longford’s Joe Flaherty, who lost his seat, much to Troy’s “deep disappointment”. He feels that Flaherty might have come out on the wrong side of a strategic effort by Longford voters to elect two TDs.

He added that the return of old Coole Area districts like Delvin, Clonmellon and Castlepollard was a huge boon to Westmeath candidates such as himself.