#Elections2019: McHugh increasingly unlikely to get seat as exit poll 'exaggerated' vote, Ryan admits
Green Party leader Eamon Ryan has admitted candidate Saoirse McHugh is looking increasingly unlikely to win a European elections seat despite "inspiring" the country with her campaign.
Speaking to reporters at the European elections Midlands North West count centre at the TF Hotel in Castlebar, Co Mayo, Mr Ryan said while he has his "fingers crossed" his rising star candidate may just lose out.
Although no official first count had been announced when Mr Ryan was speaking at lunch time on Monday, tallies are suggesting Ms McHugh's first preference vote may have been over-stated.
Asked about her chances, Mr Ryan said:
"You're always very careful on the result, I think it will be tough because she may not quite have the votes to be in the race.
"But you don't know, we'll have to wait and see what the count is.
The exit poll probably exaggerated our vote, but come what may she has done a terrific job.she was a brilliant candidate for us.affected the green wave across the country, people were inspired by her.
"And I think she's done a remarkable job.
"I haven't had a chance to talk to her, I want a chance to sit down and have a good chat with her, but I always felt when I met her first how do we get people to wake up to the change we have to make, and she was kind of bemoaning the fact everyone else is talking about it but not actually doing it.
"And eventually I said well Saoirse you should run because you know if others aren't doing it well then you should stand up and be one of the decision makers.
"So I think she did brilliantly, and it wasn't just the television debate," he said.
Mr Ryan said he is "keeping my fingers crossed" for Ms McHugh, but downplayed any early decision for her to run for the Dáil if she is not elected to Brussels by saying a highly-charged and emotional count centre is not the time to decide.
Mr Ryan separately said he will also travel to Cork for the Ireland South count in the coming hours, in order to speak with Greens senator Grace O'Sullivan who is battling for one of the final seats in the constituency.
Mr Ryan said even if his party only wins one out of its hoped for three MEP seats, the European election campaign is still a success for the Greens as one in 10 people in Ireland say they agree with their views.
Asked what he will do with the €50 Paddy Power 50-1 bet he placed a number of weeks ago on Ms McHugh winning a seat if she still achieves the feat, Mr Ryan said:
"Have a party. Yeah, have a party. That's the idea.
"We might throw a party anyway, come what may, because even if we don't win three seats, we're going to win a seat in Dublin but if we don't win the other two, the vote we got is really significant.
It's one in 10 Irish people saying yeah we want to do this, it's not a small thing.
"Okay, it's only one in 10, it's true, but I think the response from the other parties saying they agree. Well okay then fine, what are you going to do, this gives us a really strong position to stop being laggards and start being leaders.
"And that's one of the outcome of this election.
"This can't be an exclusive thing, it can't just be the Green Party saying this, it has to be all parties.
"We have to win the next five elections to do the scale of change we need to make. It has to be consistent and consensus, the challenge is so huge, but I think it's doable for the better."
