As a wave of support for parties other than the previous big two swept across the country last Sunday, Fine Gael's Michael Ring bucked the trend, topping the poll for Fine Gael in Mayo.
The incumbent Minister for Rural and Community Development got 14,796 first preference votes to get his biggest ever mandate from the people of Mayo - something that he is very thankful for, as he told the Mayo Advertiser this week: "I just want to thank the people in Mayo for putting their faith in me once again - they gave me an outstanding vote, the biggest first preference vote I ever got - I was the only Fine Gael candidate who got over the quota in the country and the first man in for the party."
He also wanted to pay tribute to the people of Mayo who went out and voted, no matter who they gave their number one to, saying: "I have to say the people of Mayo are a credit to democracy, they came out, over 64,000 of them, in some of the worst weather in places, to have their say and take part in democracy."
Whether he is in government or not when the next government is formed, one thing won't change, Deputy Ring said - and that is his work for the people of the county: "I will be working as hard now as I ever did for the people of Mayo, it is what I have always done and I won't be changing that one bit, it is the reason the people came out and voted for me and the reason I do this job - it is for the people.
"At the end of the day when we had that tide coming in against us last week, my record of delivering and working for the people of Mayo stood firm for me and I do appreciate the people who voted for me."
Fine Gael also bucked the trend in Mayo holding on to the two seats it had in the county, with Alan Dillon taking the second seat for the party in the constituency, which was a massive result for the party. Deputy Ring added: "It was a fantastic achievement for the party in Mayo to hold on to the two seats we had here, we were targeting holding on to the two, it did not happen anywhere else, apart from one other constituency in Dublin."
As for what he expects to happen in the next few weeks with the formation of the government, he believes that Sinn Féin and the parties of the left should try and form a government and not run away from it, saying: "The next step now is we have to wait and see how the government is going to be formulated, there are a number of combinations there now. We have Sinn Féin and the people have voted for them for government and for a lot of left parties and I hope they try and form a government and don't run away from it and make an excuse not to go into power."
