BREAKING: Maurice Quinlivan pledges to hold new mayor of Limerick to account

MAURICE Quinlivan has been eliminated at the ninth count in the race to become the new mayor of Limerick.

The Sinn Fein TD for Limerick City polled 11,571 votes before he bowed out.

He said the mayoral election has been "one of the most positive campaigns I have ever been involved in."

"I want to thank everyone who came out and voted for myself, every single person who took the time. To thank those people who engaged in the mayoral campaign," Mr Quinlivan said.

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He wished the new mayor of Limerick - likely at this stage to be John Moran - the best of luck, but warned that he will be holding him to account in office.

"The mayoralty is a positive thing for Limerick if they get it right. They will have my full support if they do things positive and good in the the best interests of Limerick. If they don't do that, I will be the first person to hold them to account," added the City TD.

Sinn Fein have had a tough election in Limerick. Although they retained three seats on council, they lost a sitting councillor in the shape of Tom Collopy.

And many of their hopefuls failed to make an impact.

"We had a mission to get more," he admitted, "We didn't get more. That's the natutre of politics. It's swings and roundabouts. We will learn from what went wrong and what went right. We'll sit down and move forward with our people."

Mr Quinlivan's vote of 11,571 will now be transferred.

There are now four candidates remaining in the race to become Limerick's first directly elected mayor

Mr Moran has maintained a healthy lead in first place with 20,982 votes - 5,593 ahead of second placed Helen O'Donnell.