General Election: 'We are here to lead the next government - Pádraig Mac Lochlainn

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn insists that Sinn Fein is ready to lead the next government.

The Buncrana-based deputy retained his Dáil seat, the Sinn Fein deputy taking the second seat in the Donegal constituency.

November had become December when returning officer Geraldine O’Connor confirmed the election of the Buncrana man at around 1.45am on Sunday.

Mac Lochlainn took 12.71% of the first preferences cast, a total of 9,879 votes, and he benefitted from a significant swathe of transfers from poll topper and party colleague Pearse Doherty.

Mac Lochlainn and Doherty have soldiered a long road, both standing first in the 2002 General Election without winning a seat.

This time around, Mac Lochlainn took 3,297 transfers from Doherty as the pair claimed the first two positions in the five-seater constituency. 

“I am one happy man,” Mac Lochlainn told Donegal Live. 

“It is an unbelievable privilege. I have won and lost elections and more than anyone I appreciate what this means. People do say it is humbling and I really mean it. I think of all the faces, all the people I have helped and spoken with. I have worked hard and hoped that it was enough.

“I have a huge responsibility now. A huge amount of people have put their trust in me and Pearse. We must redouble our efforts.”

This year, Sinn Fein ran three candidates and Mac Lochlainn admitted to being somewhat apprehensive. In 2016, Sinn Fein also ran three candidates with Gary Doherty joining Doherty and Mac Lochlainn on the ballot paper. Then, Mac Lochlainn was edged out of his seat before returning four years ago when usurping Pat ‘The Cope’ Gallagher.

While his vote was down by a little under 4,000 from 2020, Mac Lochlainn was the second candidate elected in the early hours of Sunday.

He said: “We were criticised in 2020 for not running enough candidates. We had such a strong vote in 2020 in Donegal so you could understand the call for us to add another candidate.

"You’re always a wee bit apprehensive because we’ll always be haunted by what happened in 2016. We made the wrong call then, but that said in 2016 we were polling at 19% a month before the election and we ended up on 14%. Fianna Fáil were polling on 19% and ended up at 24%. I think we were just caught with last minute changes to the polling.” 

Sinn Fein took 42% of the vote in the Donegal constituency - hailed as a “massive vote” by Mac Lochlainn.

He said: “I thought we might have been under pressure from the 100% Redress party, which is a hugely emotive issue. People have looked and seen that the only way for full 100% Redress is with a Sinn Fein-led government. This is a multi-billion scheme and one TD won’t achieve that. It will take the Sinn Fein-led government. That is the big issue in north Donegal, but right across Donegal it is a phenomenal result for Sinn Fein. 

“It’s huge. We took 45% in 2020 which was huge and we have taken 42% now. It’s a massive mandate. 

“If you take north Donegal in the face of a massive issue, we held a massive vote. That is testament to the hard work of our councillors and our party people in those areas.

“It is a massive vote. I thought we might have been under pressure from the 100% Redress party, which is a hugely emotive issue. People have looked and seen that the only way for full 100% Redress is with a Sinn Fein-led government. This is a multi-billion scheme and one TD won’t achieve that. It will take the Sinn Fein-led government. That is the big issue in north Donegal, but right across Donegal it is a phenomenal result for Sinn Fein.”

Mac Lochlainn is his party’s chief whip and says Sinn Fein no longer want to be in opposition in Leinster House.

He said: “We will try to get into government. We don’t want to be in opposition anymore. The issues are too big to be in opposition.”

“We are here to lead the next government. Me and Pearse stood first in 2002 so we are no Johnny come lately men. We are ready and we want to be in government. We are working class people who are rooted in our communities. 

“We see how this government has failed people. We see rents doubling, we see young people who can’t put a roof over their head, a hospital underfunded with long queues, and doctors and nurses under ferocious pressure. There are so many issues in Donegal. If we could get into government with Pearse as the Minister for Finance, I would be excited by that.”

While the national figures suggest a continuation of the Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael partnership - perhaps propped up by Labour - to form the government of the 34th Dáil, Mac Lochlainn says there is a viable alternative.

Asked whether a government drawn from the left was a realistic prospect, he said: “It’s as realistic as Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael was.

Read next: Live updates: Day two of the general election count in Donegal constituency

“Sinn Fein may well have the largest number of seats. Are the likes of the Social Democrats, Labour, progression independents and those parties going to put them back into power? I don’t think so.

"If we work with progressive voices and put together a platform based on our collective manifestos we could form a government. Fianna Fáil have a choice here: Do they want to give Fine Gael another leg up after 14 years in power?”