2014 European Parliament election in Ireland

The 2014 European Parliament election in Ireland was the Irish component of the 2014 European Parliament election and was held on Friday, 23 May 2014, on the same day as the 2014 local elections and two by-elections (Dublin West and Longford–Westmeath). The election was conducted under the single transferable vote. Counting of the votes began on Sunday, 25 May and continued until Tuesday, 27 May.

2014 European Parliament election in Ireland

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All 11 Irish seats to the European Parliament
Turnout1,701,942 (52.4% 5.2 pp)
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Enda Kenny Gerry Adams Micheál Martin
Party Fine Gael Sinn Féin Fianna Fáil
Alliance EPP GUE/NGL ALDE
Leader since 2 June 2002 13 November 1983 26 January 2011
Last election 29.1%, 4 seats 11.2%, 0 seats 24.1%, 3 seats
Seats won
4 / 11
3 / 11
1 / 11
Seat change 3 2
Popular vote 369,120 323,300 369,545
Percentage 22.28% 19.5% 22.31%
Swing 6.8 pp 8.3 pp 1.8 pp

  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
 
Leader Eamon Gilmore Eamon Ryan
Party Labour Green Socialist Party
Alliance S&D Greens/EFA GUE/NGL
Leader since 6 September 2007 27 May 2011
Last election 13.9%, 3 seats 1.9%, 0 seats 2.7%, 1 seat
Seats won
0 / 11
0 / 11
0 / 11
Seat change 3 1
Popular vote 88,229 81,458 29,953
Percentage 5.3% 4.9% 1.8%
Swing 8.6 pp 3.0 pp 0.9 pp

National and regional summaries

In contrast to a poor local election result, Fine Gael retained 4 seats, remaining the largest Irish party at a European level. Despite winning the largest number of first preference votes, Fianna Fáil lost 2 seats – a result of poor candidate selection and a reduction in the number of seats. The Labour Party, bearing the brunt of voter anger with the Coalition government, suffered a meltdown, losing all three of its seats, including its seat in Dublin which it had held since 1989. The Socialist Party also lost its sole seat. The big winners were Sinn Féin and Independents who won three seats each.

In Dublin, Lynn Boylan of Sinn Féin topped the poll and a tight four-way battle for the remaining two seats ensued between Brian Hayes of Fine Gael, ex-Labour MEP turned independent Nessa Childers, Fianna Fáil's Mary Fitzpatrick and the Green Party's Eamon Ryan. Hayes and Childers won with Hayes ahead of Ryan at the final count by a margin of 1,200 votes.

In South, both Brian Crowley of Fianna Fáil and Seán Kelly of Fine Gael were re-elected while first time candidate Liadh Ní Riada of Sinn Féin won a seat. The last seat was taken by Fine Gael Senator Deirdre Clune ahead of her party colleague Simon Harris.

In the new Midlands–North-West constituency, independent TD Luke 'Ming' Flanagan topped the poll while Mairead McGuinness of Fine Gael and Sinn Féin's Matt Carthy took the next two seats. Fianna Fáil's two-candidate strategy in the constituency backfired, with sitting MEP Pat "the Cope" Gallagher narrowly losing to independent Marian Harkin. For the first time, Ireland's delegation to the European Parliament had more women than men.

Constituency changes

The Constituency Commission made changes to the constituencies of Ireland so as to reduce the total number of MEPs from 12 to 11, due to the accession of Croatia to the European Union.

The North-West and East constituencies were abolished. A new 4-seat constituency called Midlands–North-West was created. It comprised all the area of the previous North-West constituency, with the exception of County Clare which was moved to the South constituency; as well as the north Leinster part of the East constituency.

The South constituency was increased in size by the addition of counties Carlow, Clare, Kilkenny, Wexford and Wicklow. and the number of seats increased from 3 to 4.

There were no changes to the Dublin constituency.

Opinion polls

Candidate polling

Dublin

Date Polling agency Sample size Boylan (SF) Hayes (FG) Childers (Ind) Fitzpatrick (FF) Costello (Lab) Ryan (GP) Smith (PBPA) Murphy (SP) Tallon (Ind) Darcy (DDI) Whitehead (DDI) Wise (FN)
26–28 April MillwardBrown/Sunday Independent 500 20% 15% 19% 13% 12% 11% 5% 4% 1%
1–2 May RedC/Sunday Business Post 500 15% 18% 10% 13% 13% 12% 9% 7% 2% 1% 1% 0%
13–14 May MillwardBrown/Sunday Independent 500 23% 22% 13% 11% 10% 7% 6% 7% 1%
3–15 May Behaviour & Attitudes/Sunday Times 500 19% 16% 11% 12% 7% 11% 10% 9% 3% 0% 1% 1%
23 May Behaviour & Attitudes/RTÉ Exit Poll 1000 24% 14% 11% 12% 8% 14% 6% 7% 1% 1% 1% 0%

Midlands–North-West

Date Polling agency Sample size Carthy (SF) Byrne (FF) Flanagan (Ind) Gallagher (FF) Harkin (Ind) Higgins J. (FG) McGuinness (FG) Higgins L. (Lab) Mullen (Ind) Dearey (GP) Fitzsimons (Ind) Gilroy (DDI) Nic Fhearra (FN) Fay (Ind)
26–28 April MillwardBrown/Sunday Independent 500 17% 16% 12% 9% 12% 11% 11% 4% 3% 2% 3% 1%
1–2 May RedC/Sunday Business Post 500 14% 8% 14% 9% 16% 10% 16% 5% 6% 2% 0% 0% 0%
13–14 May MillwardBrown/Irish Independent 500 19% 9% 15% 10% 12% 6% 13% 5% 5% 3% 1% 1% 0% 0%
3–15 May Behaviour & Attitudes/Sunday Times 500 14% 9% 17% 8% 12% 7% 21% 5% 5% 1% 0% 1% 0% 0%
23 May Behaviour & Attitudes/RTÉ Exit Poll 1000 13% 10% 20% 11% 11% 7% 16% 4% 4% 2% 0% 1% 0% 1%

South

Date Polling agency Sample size Crowley (FF) Ní Riada (SF) Kelly (FG) Clune (FG) Harris (FG) Prendergast (Lab) O'Flynn (Ind) Godsil (Ind) Hartley (FF) O'Sullivan (GP) Van De Ven (DDI) O'Riordan (FN) Cahill (Ind) Heaney (CD)
26–28 April MillwardBrown/Sunday Independent 500 36% 15% 12% 12% 7% 4% 7% 3% 2% 1% 1% 0% 0%
1–2 May RedC/Sunday Business Post 500 28% 14% 18% 8% 7% 9% 4% 3% 3% 6% 1% 0%
13–14 May MillwardBrown/Irish Independent 500 32% 16% 15% 10% 9% 6% 4% 2% 2% 4% 0% 0% 0% 0%
3–15 May Behaviour & Attitudes/Sunday Times 500 35% 14% 17% 10% 8% 5% 2% 2% 1% 3% 1% 0% 2% 1%
23 May Behaviour & Attitudes/RTÉ Exit Poll 1000 26% 17% 12% 9% 7% 5% 5% 1% 5% 5% 1% 1% 3% 1%

Party polling

The figures are for first-preference votes, as STV is a ranked voting system.

Dublin

Date Source Polling agency Fine Gael Labour Fianna Fáil Sinn Féin Socialist Green PBP Others
28 April 2014 Sunday Independent MillwardBrown 15% 12% 13% 20% 4% 11% 5% 20%
2 May 2014 Sunday Business Post RedC 18% 13% 13% 15% 7% 12% 9% 14%
14 May 2014 Sunday Independent MillwardBrown 22% 10% 11% 23% 7% 7% 6% 14%
14 May 2014 The Sunday Times Behaviour & Attitudes 16% 7% 12% 19% 9% 11% 10% 16%

Midlands–North-West

Date Source Polling agency Fine Gael Labour Fianna Fáil Sinn Féin Green Others
28 April 2014 Sunday Independent MillwardBrown 22% 4% 25% 17% 2% 30%
2 May 2014 Sunday Business Post RedC 26% 5% 17% 14% 2% 36%
14 May 2014 Sunday Independent MillwardBrown 19% 5% 19% 19% 3% 34%
14 May 2014 The Sunday Times Behaviour & Attitudes 28% 5% 17% 14% 4% 35%

South

Date Source Polling agency Fine Gael Labour Fianna Fáil Sinn Féin Green Others
28 April 2014 Sunday Independent MillwardBrown 30% 4% 39% 15% 1% 11%
2 May 2014 Sunday Business Post RedC 33% 9% 31% 14% 6% 8%
14 May 2014 Sunday Independent MillwardBrown 34% 6% 34% 16% 4% 6%
14 May 2014 The Sunday Times Behaviour & Attitudes 35% 5% 36% 14% 3% 8%

Results

PartyVotes%+/–Seats+/–
Fianna Fáil369,54522.31+1.81-2
Fine Gael369,12022.28-6.840
Sinn Féin323,30019.52+8.33+3
Labour Party88,2295.33-8.60-3
Green Party81,4584.92+3.000
Socialist Party29,9531.81-0.90-1
Direct Democracy Ireland24,0931.45New0New
People Before Profit Alliance23,8751.44New0New
Catholic Democrats13,5690.82New0New
Fís Nua4,6100.28New0New
Independent328,76619.85+8.33+2
Total1,656,518100.0011-1
Valid votes1,656,51897.33
Invalid/blank votes45,4242.67
Total votes1,701,942100.00
Registered voters/turnout3,245,34852.44
Source: ElectionsIreland.org

Post-Poll Alliance

EPP S&D ECR ALDE GUE/NGL G-EFA EFDD NI
Total
4 (FG) 1 (Childers) 1 (FF/Crowley) 1 (Harkin) 3 (SF)
1 (Flanagan)
11

Voting details

Constituency Electorate Turnout Spoilt Valid Poll Quota Seats Electorate per Seat Candidates
Dublin 820,668 358,943 6,368 352,575 88,144 3 273,556 12
Midlands–North-West 1,202,997 663,703 17,258 646,445 129,290 4 300,749 14
South 1,221,683 679,296 21,798 657,498 131,500 4 305,420 15
Total 3,245,348 1,701,942 45,424 1,656,518 11 31

See also

  • 2014 Northern Ireland constituency result

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