2019 European Parliament election in Ireland

The 2019 European Parliament election in Ireland is the Irish component of the 2019 European Parliament election and was held on Friday, 24 May 2019, on the same day as the 2019 local elections and a referendum easing restrictions on divorce.^[1] The election was conducted in three constituencies under the single transferable vote (STV). Thirteen MEPs were elected, but the last candidate elected in both Dublin and South did not take their seats until after Brexit on 31 January 2020.

2019 European Parliament election in Ireland

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13 Irish seats to the European Parliament (2 of which were post-Brexit seats)
Opinion polls
Turnout	1,751,873 (49.7% 2.7 pp)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Leo Varadkar Micheál Martin Eamon Ryan Party Fine Gael Fianna Fáil Green Alliance EPP Renew Greens/EFA Leader since 2 June 2017 26 January 2011 27 May 2011 Last election 22.3%, 4 seats 22.3%, 1 seat 4.9%, 0 seats Seats won 5 / 13 [nb 1] 2 / 13 [nb 2] 2 / 13 Seat change 1 2 2 Popular vote 496,459 277,705 190,755 Percentage 29.6% 16.6% 11.4% Swing 7.3 pp 5.7 pp 6.5 pp   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Collective leadership [a] Mary Lou McDonald Brendan Howlin Party Inds. 4 Change Sinn Féin Labour Alliance GUE/NGL GUE/NGL S&D Leader since n/a 10 February 2018 20 May 2016 Last election New Party 19.5%, 3 seats 5.3%, 0 seats Seats won 2 / 13 1 / 13 0 / 13 Seat change 2 2 Popular vote 124,085 196,001 52,753 Percentage 7.4% 11.7% 3.1% Swing n/a 7.8 pp 2.2 pp

2019 European Parliament Ireland constituencies

Constituency changes

See also: Apportionment in the European Parliament § 2019 election

The United Kingdom invoked Article 50 to withdraw from the European Union on 29 March 2017 following the 2016 referendum to leave the European Union. As Article 50 has a two-year period for withdrawal, the United Kingdom would not be part of the 2019 European Parliament election scheduled for May 2019. In July 2018, the European Council made a decision to redistribute a number of the seats from the United Kingdom to other member states. The allocation of MEPs from Ireland increased from 11 to 13; however, this change would not take effect until the United Kingdom has left the EU, which took place on 31 January 2020. As the United Kingdom was still a member of the EU at the beginning of the 2019–2024 parliamentary term, the allocation of seats will remain as it was in the previous parliament, until its withdrawal becomes legally effective.^[2][3][4]

A Constituency Commission chaired by High Court judge Robert Haughton was established by the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government in July 2018 to redraw constituencies in line with the change in seats.^[5][6] The commission's report was published on 24 September 2018 and proposed the following changes:^[7][8]

• Dublin gains an extra seat from 3 to 4; with no boundary changes. Full electorate is 884,118, giving electorate of 221,029.5 per seat.
• South gains an extra seat from 4 to 5, and gains counties Laois and Offaly from Midlands–North-West. Full electorate is 1,417,017, giving electorate of 283,403.4 per seat.
• Midlands–North-West loses Laois and Offaly to South, but remains a 4 seater. Full electorate is 1,224,888, giving electorate of 306,222 per seat.

The European Parliament Elections (Amendment) Act 2019 enacted the changes recommended by the Constituency Commission.^[9]

It also provided for the situation that Ireland's representation remained at 11 with an amendment to the rules, "For the purpose of the European elections held in the year 2019, the return made by the chief returning officer […] shall declare that the last candidate deemed to be elected […] in each of the constituencies of Dublin and South as specified in the Third Schedule, shall not take up their seats in the European Parliament until such time as a date has been specified by the Parliament for the taking up of such seats".^[10]

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar had incorrectly suggested that the votes would be counted twice in the constituencies which had an increased number of seats, to account for either contingency. However, Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government Eoghan Murphy later clarified that there would be only one count for each constituency, and that the final candidate to be deemed elected in Dublin and South would not take their seats until the withdrawal of the United Kingdom.^[11]

Retiring incumbents

The following MEPs did not seek re-election:

Constituency	Departing MEP	Party		EP Group		First elected	Date announced
Dublin	Nessa Childers		Independent		S&D	2009	18 July 2017[12]
South	Brian Crowley		Independent		ECR	1994	17 January 2019[13]
Dublin	Brian Hayes		Fine Gael		EPP	2014	6 November 2018[14]
Midlands–North-West	Marian Harkin		Independent		ALDE	2004	1 April 2019[15]

Candidates

Nominations closed at midday on 15 April 2019, with 59 candidates in total: 19 in Dublin (4 seats), 17 in Midlands–North-West (4 seats) and 23 in South (5 seats).^[16]

Results

2019 Election to the European Parliament in Ireland

Party		Euro party		Euro group		Party Leader	Votes	%	+/–	Seats	+/–	Brexit seats
	Fine Gael		EPP		EPP	Leo Varadkar	496,459	29.6	+7.3	5 / 13	1	+1
	Fianna Fáil		ALDE		RE	Micheál Martin	277,705	16.6	–5.7	2 / 13	1	+1
	Green		European Greens		Greens/EFA	Eamon Ryan	190,755	11.4	+6.5	2 / 13	2
	Inds. 4 Change	None			GUE/NGL	Collective leadership	124,085	7.4	new	2 / 13	2
	Sinn Féin	None			GUE/NGL	Mary Lou McDonald	196,001	11.7	–7.8	1 / 13	2
	Labour		PES		S&D	Brendan Howlin	52,753	3.1	–2.2	0 / 13
	Solidarity–PBP		EACL		GUE/NGL	Collective leadership	38,771	2.3	–1.0	0 / 13
	Social Democrats	None		None		Catherine Murphy Róisín Shortall	20,331	1.2	new	0 / 13
	Renua	None		None		John Leahy	6,897	0.4	new	0 / 13
	Workers' Party		INITIATIVE	None		Michael Donnelly	3,701	0.2	new	0 / 13
	Identity Ireland	None		None		Peter O'Loughlin	3,685	0.2	new	0 / 13
	Direct Democracy	None		None		Pat Greene	2,773	0.2	–1.3	0 / 13
	Independent						264,087	15.7	–4.1	1 / 13	2
Valid votes							1,678,003	95.8
Blank and invalid votes							73,870	4.2
Totals							1,751,873	100.0		13 / 13		+2
Electorate (eligible voters) and voter turnout							3,526,023	49.7	–2.7
Source: RTÉ News

MEPs elected

Main article: List of members of the European Parliament for Ireland, 2019–2024

Constituency	Name	Party		EP group[17]
Midlands–North-West[18]	Mairead McGuinness		Fine Gael		EPP
	Luke 'Ming' Flanagan		Independent		GUE/NGL
	Matt Carthy		Sinn Féin		GUE/NGL
	Maria Walsh		Fine Gael		EPP
Dublin[19]	Ciarán Cuffe		Green		Greens/EFA
	Frances Fitzgerald		Fine Gael		EPP
	Clare Daly		Inds. 4 Change		GUE/NGL
	Barry Andrews		Fianna Fáil		RE
South	Seán Kelly		Fine Gael		EPP
	Billy Kelleher		Fianna Fáil		RE
	Mick Wallace		Inds. 4 Change		GUE/NGL
	Grace O'Sullivan		Green		Greens/EFA
	Deirdre Clune		Fine Gael		EPP

Independents 4 Change was not affiliated to a parliamentary group at the time of the election, but joined European United Left–Nordic Green Left group.^[20]

Opinion polls

Party opinion polling

Nationwide

Last date of polling	Polling firm / Commissioner	Constituency	Sample size	FG	FF	SF	Lab	GP	S–PBP	SD	RI	IA	O/I[nb 3]
17 April 2019	Red C/The Sunday Business Post[21]	Dublin, Midlands-North-West, South	1,000	33	21	16	4	4	0	1	0	2	21[nb 4]

Dublin

Last date of polling	Polling firm / Commissioner	Sample size	FG	SF	FF	GP	I4C	S–PBP	Lab	SD	O/I
16 May 2019	Red C/The Sunday Business Post[22]	553	25	13	12	11	9	7	5	4	15[nb 4]
10 May 2019	Ipsos MRBI/The Irish Times[23]	500	29	13	18	9	10	6	8	1	6[nb 4]

Midlands-North-West

Last date of polling	Polling firm / Commissioner	Sample size	FG	FF	SF	GP	Lab	O/I
16 May 2019	Red C/The Sunday Business Post[24]	646	37	15	14	4	3	27[nb 4]
10 May 2019	Ipsos MRBI/The Irish Times[23]	500	37	13	14	3	2	31[nb 4]

South

Last date of polling	Polling firm / Commissioner	Sample size	FG	FF	SF	I4C	GP	Lab	S–PBP	O/I
16 May 2019	Red C/The Sunday Business Post[25]	825	30	23	15	8	8	3	3	10[nb 4]
10 May 2019	Ipsos MRBI/The Irish Times[23]	500	37	23	14	8	5	5	1	6[nb 4]

Candidate polling

Dublin

Last date of polling	Polling firm / Commissioner	Sample size	Fitzgerald (FG)	Boylan (SF)	Andrews (FF)	Cuffe (GP)	Daly (I4C)	Durkan (FG)	White (Lab)	Harrold (S–PBP)	Gannon (SD)	Brien (S–PBP)	Higgins (Ind)	O/I
16 May 2019	Red C/The Sunday Business Post[22]	553	17	13	12	11	9	8	5	4	4	3	2	13[nb 4]
10 May 2019	Ipsos MRBI/The Irish Times[23]	500	22	13	18	9	10	7	8	3	1	3	2	4[nb 4]

Midlands-North-West

Last date of polling	Polling firm / Commissioner	Sample size	McGuinness (FG)	Carthy (SF)	Flanagan (Ind)	Walsh (FG)	Casey (Ind)	Smith (FF)	Rabbitte (FF)	McHugh (GP)	Hannigan (Lab)	O'Dowd (RI)	O/I
16 May 2019	Red C/The Sunday Business Post[24]	646	27	14	12	10	10	9	6	4	3	2	3[nb 4]
10 May 2019	Ipsos MRBI/The Irish Times[23]	500	26	14	16	11	9	8	5	3	2	1	4[nb 4]

South

Last date of polling	Polling firm / Commissioner	Sample size	Kelly (FG)	Ní Riada (SF)	Kelleher (FF)	Byrne (FF)	Wallace (I4C)	O'Sullivan (GP)	Clune (FG)	Doyle (FG)	Nunan (Lab)	Wallace (S–PBP)	O/I
16 May 2019	Red C/The Sunday Business Post[25]	825	17	15	13	10	8	8	7	6	3	3	10[nb 4]
10 May 2019	Ipsos MRBI/The Irish Times[23]	500	18	14	13	10	8	5	10	9	5	1	7[nb 4]

See also

• 2020 Irish general election

Footnotes

1. When the United Kingdom left the European Union and the seats in the European Parliament were redistributed, Fine Gael/EPP Group gained an additional seat in the South constituency.
2. When the United Kingdom left the European Union and the seats in the European Parliament were redistributed, Fianna Fáil/Renew Europe gained an additional seat in the Dublin constituency.
3. This column includes figures for Independents 4 Change and Aontú when available.
4. A figure for 'Others/Independents' is not mentioned in the cited source, but has been calculated by subtracting the other parties from 100%, so the figure shown may be slightly inaccurate due to rounding effects.

1. Pictured here is the party's two successful candidates in this election, Mick Wallace and Clare Daly