Pat ‘the Cope’ Gallagher will return to the Dáil after a four-year absence as he was elected in Donegal on the 15th count.
The 76-year-old Fianna Fáil candidate was first elected to the Dáil in 1981 and is a former three-time MEP.
After losing his European seat in 2014, he stood in the 2016 and was elected alongside his party colleague Charlie McConalogue.
However, he narrowly lost his seat in the 2020 election, missing out on the final seat to Mr McConalogue.
In the capital, Ruth Coppinger of People Before Profit-Solidarity said she was “absolutely delighted” to regain her seat in the Dáil, having previously lost it in 2020.
She was elected on the final count in Dublin West, joining the ranks of the 34th Dáil’s comeback kids along with the likes of Timmy Dooley and Paul Gogarty.
A councillor from 2004 to 2014, Ms Coppinger was first elected to the Dáil in a by-election in 2014, and held her seat in the 2016 general election before losing it last time around.
She was re-elected to Fingal County Council in the local elections earlier this year.
“I think everybody in this election has been worried about the far-right and I think we saw it reflected in the vote where they got nothing,” Ms Coppinger said after her election.
“They will have nobody return to the Dáil, which I do think is one positive.”
Ms Coppinger said housing, the lack of investment in public services and the transport crisis were all issues raised during her campaign.
“The housing crisis and the inaction on it, is giving oxygen to the far right, it is giving oxygen to racism…”
She added that minorities in her community were walking around in fear.
Fianna Fáil’s Timmy Dooley has also returned to Leinster House following an absence.
First elected in 2007, he topped the poll in Clare in 2016 but missed out entirely in 2020. He was subsequently elected to the Seanad on the nomination of then-taoiseach Micheál Martin.
This time around he again topped the poll in Clare on first preferences, but had to wait until the 13th count to secure his return to the Dáil.
Speaking in Ennis after his election was made official, he said he worked hard over the last five years after a 2020 defeat.
Mr Dooley added that his objective throughout the campaign was to return to the Dáil and deliver two seats in Clare.
“I think that feeds into what Micheál Martin and what Fianna Fáil have been about throughout this campaign and the last trying to maximise that Fianna Fáil support in government, hopefully, put him back in as Taoiseach and continue to deliver for the country in the best way we can, regardless of the circumstances in which we find ourselves,” he said.
Mr Dooley said he did not expect anything if the party took office again when asked about his own ambitions, but would be “prepared for everything”.
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Former junior minister with responsibility for the OPW Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran is also back in the Leinster House fold.
After losing his Longford-Westmeath seat in 2020, Mr Moran reclaimed it on the 14th count.
Speaking afterwards he kept it local, saying “we’re back, we won, Athlone has a TD”, adding that he had spent “four-and-a-half years in the wilderness”.
Earlier, Mr Moran ruled out talking to Independent Ireland in advance of any talks about government formation.
He said he is “not comfortable” with some of Independent Ireland’s policies.
While he is friends with Independent Ireland TD Michael Fitzmaurice, Mr Moran rejected any suggestion that he would align himself to the party.
Paul Gogarty is another familiar face who will know his way around Leinster House when the Dáil returns later this month.
A Green Party TD from 2002 to 2011, Mr Gogarty lost his Dáil seat in 2011 and failed to regain in three subsequent attempts – a by-election in 2019 and the general elections of 2016 and 2020.
A former Mayor of South Dublin, he has topped the poll in the Lucan area in the last two local elections.
Speaking to RTÉ’s This Week after his election in Dublin Mid-West, he said his former colleagues in the Green Party have been “maligned” by various segments of the “different political spectrums”.
Mr Gogarty said the Greens have gotten the blame for “everything that they had nothing to do with”.
“They achieved in government, and twice now they’ve gotten a kicking for taking the brave decision to go into government and as [former tánaiste] Mary Harney said, the worst day in government is better than the best day in opposition, so they did the right thing,” he said.
Mr Gogarty added that if he was still in the party, that he would have focused on the “big picture items” as opposed to “getting mixed up in smaller issues”.
He added that he would have as much influence in opposition as any other party TD.
“Either way, I would be representing people strongly, but I think you have to represent your constituents,” he said.
Fine Gael’s Jerry Buttimer, who was the party’s leader in the Seanad, has been re-elected in Cork South-Central.
He was previously a TD for the party between 2011 and 2016 before losing his seat in what was one of the country’s most competitive constituencies in the country.
Fianna Fáil’s Eamon Scanlon has also regained his seat in Sligo-Leitrim.
A pattern is beginning to emerge for Mr Scanlon, who was first elected in 2007 before losing his seat in 2011.
He then won it back in 2016 before missing out in 2020 – all of which does not bode well for the next general election.
Speaking after his election, he joked that “it’s 3-2 at this stage” to strong applause from the crowd gathered in Atlantic Technological University.
Meanwhile, a number of well-known former TDs have failed in their bids to make a return to the Dáil.
In Wexford, former TD and MEP Mick Wallace of Independents4Change lost out on the eight count, having lost his seat in the European Parliament in the summer.
It was the same story for his party colleague Clare Daly, who also lost her European Parliament seat earlier this year and was unsuccessful in her Dáil bid for the Dublin Central constituency.
Elsewhere, former Fine Gael TD Noel Rock failed to reclaim the Dublin North-West seat which he won in 2016 but lost last time around in 2020.
In Mayo, Fianna Fáil Senator Lisa Chambers failed to regain a seat she held from 2016 to 2020.
