No candidate elected yet in Midlands North-West

Mayo Independent candidate Saoirse McHugh has been eliminated after the 15th count. Despite a strong campaign, McHugh fell short in the highly competitive race. Shrule native, Maria Walsh looks set to re-claim her seat in Brussels.

Independent candidate Luke 'Ming' Flanagan is leading by a significant margin. Flanagan is over 15,000 votes ahead of Fine Gael’s Nina Carberry and just 2,792 off the quota. Despite his lead, no candidate has been officially elected yet.

The race intensifies as Fine Gael’s Maria Walsh and, Nina Carberry, Fianna Fáil’s Barry Cowen, appear poised to secure seats. Their strong performance thus far suggests that they are on track to represent the constituency in the European Parliament.

The 17th count included the distribution of Fianna Fáil's Niall Blaney's 36,157 votes, which primarily helped his party colleague Lisa Chambers. Despite this significant boost, it appears it will not be enough for Chambers to secure a seat.

The distribution of votes from Sitting MEP, Chris MacManus has allowed Michelle Gildernew to overtake Ciaran Mullooly of Independent Ireland into the fifth seat.

The 19th count will include the distribution of Aontu leader Peadar Toibín's votes.

The election count in the TF Royal Hotel and Theatre to elect MEPs for Midlands North West looks set to continue into the night.