Tommy Collins (right) with Brian O’Donoghue and Aoife Collins pictured just before he was eliminated from the election on Sunday afternoon. Photo by Dermot Crean
INDEPENDENT candidate, Tommy Collins was eliminated on the fifth count in the Tralee Electoral Area elections.
He received just six votes from Norma Foley’s surplus which brought him to 731, not enough to keep him in the race.
The sixth count, dealing with the distribution of Collins’ votes, is due in about an hour. This will almost certainly see Labour’s Terry O’Brien elected as he needs just 15 votes to exceed the quota.
Speaking afterwards to TraleeToday.ie, Tommy Collins was gracious in defeat and thanked his supporters.
“I’m disappointed of course. I thought I’d do better with my first preference, I though I’d do better in town. But that’s the vagaries of politics, you win some, you lose some. I’d love to have been in there to do more because I love my town and its people, but it’s not to be.”
Tommy said he would be back in action next week with projects he is working on.
These include a ponding project in Cloonbeg for which he has secured funding, as well as a mill wheel project in Ballymullen.
“Those are my immediate projects and I can’t see myself lying down. Mile buiochas do gach duine a cabhair dom,” said Mr Collins.
