FINE Gael’s Mairead McGuinness has been re-elected to the European Parliament with a massive vote of 134,630.

Ms McGuinness secured her seat on the first count in the four-seat Midlands-North-West constituency.

The former TV presenter and high profile MEP will return to Brussels where she has been a prominent voice in the Brexit debate.

There will be a fierce battle for the other three seats.

Mairead McGuinness was elected with more than 15,000 votes to spare.

It leaves Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan (85,034), Sinn Féin’s Matt Carthy (77, 619), Fine Gael’s Maria Walsh (64,500), Peter Casey (56,650) and the Green Party’s Saoirse McHugh (51,019) chasing the remaining three seats.

Ms McHugh had been strongly tipped to take a seat after the RTÉ/TG4/RedC exit poll put her at 12pc.

However it overestimated her support.

In the end her first preference vote was just over 8pc.

The margin of error was 4pc in the exit poll.

The Green candidate came to national prominence after a strong performance on a TV debate marked by her clashes with Mr Casey.

After the first count she trails Mr Casey by around 5,600 votes.

Reacting to her re-election, Ms McGuinness said she is “delighted, relieved and a bit tired.”

She said her running mate Maria Walsh has done really well and she’s quietly confident Fine Gael will take two seats in the constituency.

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