GE2024: Tóibín's Delight...'This year has been a coming of age for Aontú'

Aontu leader, Peadar Tóibín was in bouyant mood following his election in Meath West on Saturday on the fourth count, and his party's success nationally was the icing on the cake for him.

The party he founded in 2019 doubled its representation in the Dáil with the election of Paul Lawless in Mayo on Monday and the party had the highest percentage increase of any party.

“We've doubled our vote in this election since the last election. It has been a great election for me. Here in Meath West I have increased my vote by two and a half per cent - while Fine Gael are down by eight per cent and Sinn Fein seven per cent. While the seat numbers may not reflect this, there has been a huge change in voting patterns in Meath West.

"I want to thank all of those who voted for me and my team of activists who have been so generous with their time and ran a great campaign,

"They knocked on 95 per cent of doors in the constituency, both urban and rural."

Tóibín was elected on the fourth count after 1,720 transfers from Independent candidate, Noel French, brought him well over the quota to finish with 10,054 votes.

In terms of vote share, Tóibín polled 20 per cent of first preference votes, which is up two and a half per cent from 2020.

Tóibín was first elected to the Dáil for Sinn Féin in 2011 and served as chair of the Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs between 2016 and 2018.

He resigned from Sinn Féin in 2018 over its support for abortion and the following year, he founded Aontú, a socially conservative republican party.

He retained his seat in the 2020 general election and became Aontú’s sole representative in the 33rd Dáil.

He is delighted at the election of Aontu's Paul Lawless in Mayo and the performance of his party nationally. "It has been a very busy year for us. We had two referendums, the European elections, the local elections, an election in Northern Ireland and now the general election.

"This year has been a coming of age for us and we have raised our profile greatly.

“The referendums earlier this year was our first great opportunity to engage with people. The local elections and the European elections saw further engagement and growth.

"We have seen great growth. This is a long term project to build up our party which has a unique distinct voice that no other party has.

"We are a party of conviction, a political party that stands up for our ideals. We doubled out vote nationally and we have big plans for growth in the future.

"I want to congratulate my sister Emer who put in a fantastic performance in Meath East. She doesn't sit on the sidelines, she's active and gets things done."

Over the past year, Tóibín has enjoyed a very high profile in the national media and during the recent general election campaign he earned a place among the 10 party leaders featured in the first RTE Leaders debate.

It was an assured outing for the Aontu leader, who took full advantage of his positioning close to the centre of the stage and spoke on almost every topic, throwing plenty of punches.

However, he felt it was a difficult campaign. "In previous elections I would have been canvassing all day throughout the campaign.

"This time, I was writing manifestos, preparing for the media, canvassing in other constituencies, so my opportunity to get to the doors in Meath West during the campaign were less than normal.

"I found that very stressful. I believe knocking on people's doors is the richest form of engagement. Despite this we got 20 per cent of the vote in Meath West which bodes well for future gains in the county."

"We are ahead of People Before Profit, Independent Ireland and even the Greens. This is a big platform for us to challenge the Government on in the future."

"Some of the early tallies gave me a bit of a shock to be honest and I had spent so much time out of the constituency during this campaign, but I am delighted the Aontú vote is up two and a half per cent in this constituency."

When it comes to forming a government, Deputy Tóibín believes that both Fianna Fail and Fine Gael will be seeking support for smaller parties, something he hopes won't happen.

"Fine Gael have been in power 14 years. It would wrong of the Social Democrats to put them back in power again and I appeal to that party not to support a FG/FF government," he said.