Minister Peter Burke "very happy" with Fine Gael performance so far

Minister for Trade, Enterprise and Employment Peter Burke has said the Fine Gael party are "very happy" with their performance in the local elections so far.

Speaking to the Westmeath Examiner last night, Minister Burke was optimistic of gaining a seat in Mullingar.

“We are very happy with the results so far. We hopefully have a sporting chance of claiming a second seat, in Mullingar. It all depends on how transfers are going to go because when it's a very tight race, there is not a lot of difference between a lot of the candidates, so it depends on the order of eliminations really.

“Tom Farrell got a huge result in Moate, topping the poll there. John Dolan is doing very well down in Athlone and obviously in North Westmeath there's a battle between Emily Wallace and Seamus McDermott, but Emily seems to be doing very well in that front.” he said.

It looks as if Fine Gael will lose a seat in the Kinnegad LEA as Séamus McDermott has a lot of ground to make up if he is to take the seat his brother Frank has held for 55 years.

“We are really challenged in Kinnegad, to be quite frank, because obviously both our candidates are close enough together.”

“When Frank McDermott was retiring after over 50 years of service, it was always going to be a significant void to fill, but Seamus has done as best he can to try and replace Frank. However, the results are showing us it's going to be very difficult.”

On a national scale, Fine Gael have the most elected candidates so far, with 85 members elected to the local authorities around the country as of lunchtime this Sunday.

"We are looking at taking a seat in Swords for the first time in a decade through Luke Corkery. If you go down and see Bannon at Slough, Alan Harney getting 1,700 first preference votes. A lot of new, good, high-quality candidates have come through and I think it speaks well for the future for the party." he concluded