There’s bad news for both the Labour leader Joan Burton and the Minster for Minster of State Aodhan O’Riordan tonight.
The Dublin West constituency has Burton currently running in 5th place in the 4-seater, and she’s dropping, fast. It looks likely that the Tanaiste will actually come 6th in the constituency following a 5th placed independent.
Meanwhile, 40-yr-old O’Riordan looks like he’s going back to the classroom. An atrociously bad run campaign sees him out of the running for a seat in the Dublin North Central constituency. His ardent support of water charges are said to be the singular reason for his demise.
It now appears that longtime Labour stalwarts whose seats were have long been considered completely safe now look likely to be gone.
Ged Nash in Drogheda, Emmet Stagg in Kildare and Brendan Howlin are all in serious trouble just 72 hours out of the election. In fact, some analysts suggest at this stage, Labour may not return a single TD.