Sinn Fein's Darren O'Rourke takes seat in Meath East

Sinn Fein's Darren O'Rourke is the second TD to take a seat in Meath East. O'Rourke was elected on the 10th count after party colleague Maria White's transfers got him over the line well exceeding the quota with 12,786 votes.

Speaking afterwards, O'Rourke said:

"We are really grateful to everyone who came out and supported us, it was a really tremendous result for Sinn Fein in Meath East and right across Co Meath and really happy to be re elected and looking forward to the work that is ahead of us.

"A very special thanks to Cllr Maria White who ran an excellent campaign and a tremendous transfer that helped us over the line very significantly there."

O'Rourke has been a TD for Sinn Fein in the Meath East constituency since February 2020.

From 2014 to 2020, he served as a councillor on Meath County Council for the Ashbourne Local Electoral Area.

He was the Sinn Féin candidate at the 2013 Meath East by-election which was won by Fine Gael's Helen McEntee. He was unsuccessful again at the 2016 general election but at the 2020 general election he topped the poll with 24.4 per cent of the first-preference votes, and was elected on the second count.

O'Rourke was previously a policy advisor to Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin TD, originally from Kells, O'Rourke trained in Dublin Institute of Technology and holds a number of master's degrees from Trinity College Dublin and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. He was a medical scientist at St James's Hospital in Dublin.