GE2024: Team Toole lands prized seat in 34th Dail after whirlwind campaign

"It's not ME, it's a WE," declared a triumphant Gillian Toole surrounded by a cheering entourage of supporters and campaign strategists that helped steer the Ratoath woman to become Meath's first Independent TD.

The soon to be former Meath county councillor claimed the last Meath East seat after a gruelling two day count in Ashbourne. In truth, after the first count result, no one believed she would not be joining incumbents Helen McEntee, Darren O'Rourke, Thomas Byrne on the new four seater ticket.

She picked up 4,459 first preference votes when all the boxes were opened - a sizeable gap over fellow county councillors Sharon Tolan (3,176) and Emer Tóibín (3,281) and that cushion would only grow bigger as the counts rolled in. Tolan and Tóibín could be proud of running strong campaigns but the story of the day belonged to Toole who emerged victorious on Sunday night.

Toole, unlike many of the candidates who came and went during the course of the count - that didn't have its first result until 7pm on Saturday evening - stayed in the count centre for most of the weekend with members of her team, even offering sandwiches to a grateful media.

And the wait was well worth it when, close to midnight, Returning Officer, Kevin Martin took to the podium to deem her elected to kickstart roars of delight that echoed through the Donaghmore Ashbourne GAA Centre.

"We worked very hard in a very short space of time, but we are committed to the county, and hopefully all of the public reps for Meath can actually work together and have strength in numbers, regardless of party background," said a delighted Toole after the result.

"I think we've good chance for five years if we work constructively together and increase that funding figure per capita Meath needs and that would be my objective.

It was put to her that it was no easy feat for an independent candidate to get to the Dail on their first attempt, Toole acknowledged it was a serious campaign run on limited resources.

"It was a short one with a finite budget, but as I keep saying it's down to this group of people, including campaign manager, Liz Rigby who managed things to the cent. I think, if you do the work, and do the work as a councillor, and then you do more work, and realise that people don't suffer fools lightly you get the rewards. You just have to keep your head down and keep working.

What are the priorities for Toole when she takes her seat in Leinster House and the 34th Dail? "My focus will be, probably coming from my own background (pharmacist), would be healthcare and particularly special education. I'll work with everybody and anybody. I think we've probably five key areas in the country that need to be addressed as a matter of urgency. We are relatively wealthy country, but we have to get five basics right which would be health, housing, education, community safety and public transport.

The Ratoath woman kicked talk of talk with Micheal Martin and Simon Harris on possible government formation to touch. "Totally early days for anything like that to be honest, my brain isn't even thinking strategically like anything like that. Totally early days. We don't we don't know numbers for the rest of country items anyway, everybody else on their phones, hanging over the railings opening, what's happening, so all that will be for another day."

Toole recalls that she got involved in politics "by accident" when a sewerage pipe was being laid down the main street of Dunshaughlin in the nineties. Businesses got together to form a business association which later became a chamber of commerce. She was contacted by John Bruton's office to run in the local elections in 1999 and only missed out on a seat by 60-70 votes. This awakened an interest in politics but it wasn't until 2014 that she ran again for Meath Co Council, winning a seat for Fine Gael. She left the party in 2019 and ran as an independent that year, retaining her seat convincingly in June's elections with over 3,000 votes.

Toole is being backed by independent Senator Sharon Keogan and a number of other independent councillors who have been helping out with canvassing where they can.

Commenting on Toole's victory Senator Keogan said: "We're absolutely delighted. This was an independent seat to win, and we did the work. We got in behind Gillian, and we had marvellous support there.

“This was very much a team effort, and this seat was coming home to an independent team. Gillian is going to be a fantastic TD for Meath East, she's extremely diligent. She's a strong character, and she will leave nothing on the table. I'm really proud of her today.”

Gillian Toole was elected to Meath Co Council in 2014 as a Fine Gael councillor but left the party ahead of the 2019 local election to run as a Independent. She was elected that year and topped the poll in June's local elections in the Ratoath area gaining more than 3,000 votes.