Summary
- Counting has resumed in the general election as the options for the next government become clearer.
- The indications from count centres across the country suggest the return of an administration involving Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael currently looks more likely than a government including Sinn Féin.
- Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said her party’s performance in the election had broken the State’s political mould.
- Taoiseach and Fine Gael leader Simon Harris dismissed talk of a Sinn Féin surge and said he was “cautiously optimistic” about where his party will stand after all the votes are counted.
- Tánaiste and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin insisted his party has a “very clear route back to government” as he predicted seat gains.
- If Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael do return to power, they will undoubtedly need one, if not two, of the Dáil’s smaller parties to reach the required 88 seats to form a majority.
2.25pm
Fine Gael’s Paschal Donohoe has now been elected in Dublin Central.
That leaves two candidates fighting to take the final seat – Labour’s Marie Sherlock and Independent Gerard ‘The Monk’ Hutch.
The surplus votes from Mr Donohoe will now be distributed.
2.20pm
The final seats have been filled in Galway East. After the eleventh count, Fine Gael’s Pete Roche and Sinn Féin’s Louis O’Hara have been elected.
2.00pm
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has said he is “wary and cautious” about the filling of the final seats in the election.
He said there was “very little point” in discussing Government formation until seats are finalised.
Speaking at the count centre at Nemo Rangers GAA Club in Cork, he said: “I’ll do my own reflections, think about it. I need a long walk – from an exercise point of view – but also to clear the head and think this one through
“There’s very serious challenges facing the country and we’ve got to keep the country right and put the people before ourselves and before parties.”
Asked if there was trust between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, he said: “I think there’s capacity to get on.”
1.45pm
Labour are increasingly confident Marie Sherlock is picking up enough transfers to overtake Gerard Hutch to get the last seat in Dublin Central.
1.40pm
Fianna Fáil’s Dara Calleary and Alan Dillon of Fine Gael have both just been elected in Mayo’s eighth count.
Their surpluses will now be distributed, with Fine Gael still having two candidates, Mark Duffy and Kiera Keogh, in the running, alongside Independent candidate Patsy O’Brien and Aontú’s Paul Lawless.
1.25pm
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has said discussions on a rotating Taoiseach are for “another day”.
Speaking after the election of his running mate Seamus McGrath in Cork South Central, Mr Martin said negotiations to form a coalition “took a long time” in 2020.
The agreement involved the leaders of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil each taking a turn in the office of Taoiseach.
Earlier, Former deputy leader of Fine Gael Simon Coveney said the party would find it a “difficult proposition” to re-enter a coalition without a similar arrangement.
Asked by reporters about those comments, Mr Martin said: “Is Simon acting as mediator now or what? Look, it is all for another day.”
12.55pm
Grace Boland of Fine Gael and Labour’s Robert O’Donoghue have both been elected in Dublin Fingal West, while Mick Wallace has been eliminated in Wexford.
12.45pm
Fine Gael’s James Geoghegan, current Lord Mayor of Dublin, has been elected in Dublin Bay South, while Labour leader Ivana Bacik also exceeded the quota to be elected.
12.25pm
Latest Dublin Central count sees Labour’s Marie Sherlock back in the hunt for the final seat against Gerard Hutch. In the distribution of Green Party’s Neasa Hourigan, Sherlock picked up 851 votes, with just 26 going to Hutch. This narrows gap between the two to just 1,200. Next is surplus from Gary Gannon and the elimination of Mary Fitzpatrick, which could see Sherlock overtake Hutch.
12.20pm
The first count in Cavan Monaghan has finally been completed. With a quota of 11,542, Sinn Féin’s Matt Carthy is closest with 9,363 first preferences. Coming in next is his colleague Cathy Bennett with 6,904. Next is FF’s Brendan Smith with 6,653 and then Sinn Féin’s third candidate Pauline Tully with 6,455. Of the rest, it is close between Fine Fáil’s Robbie Gallagher with 6,273 and Fine Gael’s David Maxwell on 6,199. Then it’s Fianna Fáil’s Niamh Smyth on 5,789.
Meanwhile, in Dublin West, Emer Currie has been elected, keeping former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s old seat in Fine Gael’s hands.
12.10pm
Social Democrat’s Gary Gannon has been re-elected on the eighth count in Dublin Central, while Brian Brennan of Fine Gael has gotten over the line in Wicklow-Wexford on the sixth count.
12.00pm
Independent, former Sinn Féin TD Brian Stanley has just been elected in Laois, taking the third seat. He was 58 away from the quota but was deemed elected by the Returning Officer regardless.
11.50
Fianna Fáil’s Seán Fleming has just been elected in Laois.
11.45
Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern says the possible election of Gerry Hutch is not because the area is deprived or neglected, but because of his deep roots in the community. “Gerry Hutch has been kind to that community in lots of indirect ways. His family are well known and – if you like it or not- respected by a lot of these people. That’s why he got over 3,000 votes. When you do things down the years and the decades, grandma knows, mam knows, and the kids know.”
11.40
Independent candidate and former Fine Gael minister, Alan Shatter has been eliminated following the fifth count for Dublin Rathdown, while in Mayo, Lisa Chambers has also been eliminated.
11.19
Over half of Malachy Steenson’s transfers went to Gerard Hutch in the seventh count in Dublin Central, bringing Hutch now to over 2,000 votes ahead of Labour’s Marie Sherlock who has got a big gap to fill if she wants to retain her seat.
Gerard Hutch now sits at 4,995 votes while Marie Sherlock sits at 2,990 votes, with the Green Party’s Neasa Hourigan having been eliminated.
Sherlock will need a lot of transfers from both Hourigan and Fitzpatrick, along with the potential surplus from Social Democrat Gary Gannon, to close the gap. But for now, Hutch seems more likely to take the seat.
11.17
The Labour party could well prove to be kingmakers when it comes to the formation of the next government. Its on track to win between 8 and 10 seats. Labour’s Duncan Smith says they want to explore all options once the votes are in. “Our position is very clear: we want to talk to the Social Democrats, any Greens left, others on the left who might want to form a common platform. That’s where we are at and it hasn’t changed, despite overtures from the big two throughout the campaign.”
11.10
Outgoing Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien, of Fianna Fáil, has been re-elected in Dublin Fingal.
11.05
Fianna Fáil’s Albert Dolan has been elected in Galway East on what is his 26th birthday.
Mr Dolan will likely be the youngest member of the new Dáil. He made history earlier this year after the local elections by becoming Galway County Council’s youngest ever cathaoirleach aged 25.
The election of the first-time candidate means his running mate Anne Rabitte is unlikely to be re-elected.
11.00
Independent Mattie McGrath has been re-elected on the second count in Tipperary South.
Get details of the full count on our dedicated results page for Tipperary South.
10.50
Outgoing Green TD Brian Leddin has lost his seat in Limerick City after being eliminated on the seventh count.
This election has been one to forget for the Greens.
Minister for Culture Catherine Martin lost her seat in Dublin Rathdown, Marc O Cathasaigh failed to retain his seat in Waterford, while junior minister Ossian Smyth also lost out in Dún Laoghaire.
Junior minister Joe O’Brien lost his seat in Dublin Fingal West, Neasa Hourigan is at risk in Dublin Central, while Wicklow’s Steven Matthews garnered just 4 per cent of first preferences.
Green leader Roderic O’Gorman could hang on in Dublin West, but he may end up as the only TD from his party.
10.30
Gavin Pepper, a prominent anti-immigration activist, has been eliminated on the sixth count in Dublin North-West.
A father of six, the Dublin City councillor was hoping to take a seat from Sinn Féin’s Dessie Ellis, who has topped the poll and remains ahead with 6,015 votes.
See the full results from Dublin North-West here.
10.15
Sinn Féin’s Rose Conway-Walsh has been elected in Mayo. The outgoing TD exceeded the quota of 11,812 with 11,963 on the sixth count.
See the full breakdown of the count on our Mayo constituency results page.
10.05
Kildare North has finally delivered its first count.
With a quota of 9,505 in the five-seater, James Lawless of Fianna Fáil leads the way with 8,734, ahead of a strong performance by the Social Democrats’ Aidan Farrelly, who has secured 7,611 first preferences.
After these two, it is Sinn Féin’s Réada Cronin with 6,806, Fianna Fáil’s Naoise Ó Cearúil on 5,872, Fine Gael’s Joe Neville with 5,533 and his party colleague Bernard Durkan on 4,632.
Get details of the full count on our dedicated results page for Kildare North.
9.30
Our colleagues in the Western People tell us that in the five-seat Mayo constituency, Rose Conway-Walsh, Alan Dillon and Dara Calleary are certain to be elected.
As it stands, Keira Keogh is well situated to take a seat and the final seat is a real toss-up. Although Paul Lawless looks to be in the distance currently, trailing Patsy O’Brien by almost 1,000 votes, there are rumours and murmurs that the Aontú councillor is set to transfer very strongly from Stephen Kerr.
Should Gerry Murray be eliminated next, then the Charlestown-based councillor will surely have a chunk of votes to send down the N17 to Lawless in Knock.
9.20
Here is where things stand as counting resumes in some constituencies.
We have first counts in 41 of the 43 constituencies, with Kildare North and Cavan-Monaghan the only two not to report results yet.
Six constituencies have totally finished counting – most of those are three seaters and one four seat in Dún Laoghaire.
Some 41 of the 174 seats in the Dáil have been filled. So far there are 11 seats for Fianna Fáil, 11 for Fine Gael and eight for Sinn Féin.
9.05
Former taoiseach Bertie Ahern says it will likely be the new year before a new government is formed. He says the priority for the party leaders now will be a “good rest”.
“The leaders are all very tired. They’ll have their great hurrah during the middle of the week when the new parliamentary parties will meet. I assume it will probably be the following week when they think about how they knock all this together. Hopefully they will do it quicker, but it will probably go into the new year, I’m sure.”
9.00
Welcome to live coverage of Election 2024 on breakingnews.ie. We’ll be bringing you updates throughout the day here as the count continues in constituencies around the country.
You can also visit our election results hub to get a summary of where things stand, or check out the dedicated page for your own constituency.
