Hayley Halpin
BBC News NI

Speaking to the media earlier, People Before Profit leader Richard Boyd Barrett said he thinks his party's percentage is up this election, but added that "may not translate into seats".

"It could be a good day but it’s going to come down to tight margins at the end of the day," Boyd Barrett said.

He said there is "no doubt" that the low voter turnout nationally has done People Before Profit and the left in general no favours.

Boyd Barrett said the “failure of the left to establish an alliance” has “demotivated left-wing voters”.

“I think there was a lower turnout among young people and working class communities than the last time and I think that has hurt the left.”

People Before Profit is a left-wing party which formed in 2005. The party is active in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. In October, Boyd Barrett was selected as the party’s leader. Prior to this, the party had no leader. The party is in an alliance with Solidarity.

Barry O'Connor
BBC News NI

Independent Republican and former Sinn Féin TD Brian Stanley is at 17.6% in the final tally in Laois. Stanley topped the poll in 2020 but is far from doing that this time.

Stanley resigned from the party in October and said his decision followed on from a complaint that saw him brought before an "internal party inquiry".

At the time, the Sinn Féin leader, Mary Lou McDonald, said an issue relating to Stanley has been passed on to An Garda Síochána (Irish police).

His replacement in Sinn Féin, Maria McCormack, who lost out during the local elections, is at 12.5%.

Image source, PA Media

The final tally shows Fine Gael's Willie Aird in the lead with 24.7%.

The Portlaoise councillor could be elected on the first count which is due later this afternoon.

Fianna Fáil's Seán Fleming is on 21.3% in the three seat constituency.

Image source, Getty Images

The Irish government is made up of two Houses of the Oireachtas: the Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann.

Today's count is for the Dáil Éireann, which was made up of 160 members - also known as Teachtaí Dálas (TDs) - but will increase to have 174 after this general election.

Following the 2020 election, Fianna Fáil had the most TDs with 38, followed by Sinn Féin with 37, and Fine Gael with 35.

The Green Party had 12 members, Labour and Social Dem both had 6, and Aontú and Independents 4 Change both had one TD each.

Five members were People Before Profit, and the remaining 19 TDs were independents.

Barry O'Connor
BBC News NI

Image source, RTÉ

Labour candidate George Lawlor has had to leave the count centre for a very festive reason.

He has had to go switch on the Christmas lights in Wexford town, one of his responsibilities as Mayor.

He will return to the count centre though as he hopes to win a seat. The tally currently has him on 14%

Image source, PA Media

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin is originally from Cork and has been a member of parliament in Ireland since 1989 when he became Teachta Dála for Cork South-Central

He also holds the positions of Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Defence.

At University College Cork, Martin became involved in the Fianna Fáil political society. The woman who would become his wife in, Mary O’Shea, also was politically active at UCC.

Martin became the Irish Taoiseach in 2020 after Fianna Fáil entered into coalition government with its main opponent Fine Gael and the Green Party.

In December 2022, under the power-sharing agreement, Martin and Leo Varadkar rotated jobs, as Martin became Tánaiste (deputy prime minister) and Varadkar returned to the role of Taoiseach.

Enda McClafferty
BBC News NI political editor

Image source, PA Media

Nineteen months ago he was on trial for murder and now he could be on the cusp of taking a seat in the Dáil.

Gerry Hutch appears to have secured more than 3,000 first reference votes, according to the early tallies.

That is a long way short of the expected quota of 6,500 votes but transfers could work to his favour.

He is set to be in a fight for the last seat with the Labour and Fianna Fáil candidates.

Much will depend on the transfers from the independent candidate Malachy Steenson - the majority of which are expected to go to Gerry Hutch.

If he eventually misses out it could be by a narrow margin.

But his performance has already raised questions about the depth of anti-establishment feeling in his constituency of Dublin Central.

It will also be a question for the Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald who is standing in the same constituency and who has also tapped into the anti-government sentiment.

Hutch was acquitted of murdering David Byrne in the Regency Hotel but just at the Special Criminal Court described the 61-year-old as the patriarchal figurehead of the Hutch criminal organisation and said he engaged in serious criminal conduct.

Image source, Reuters

In 2018, Mary Lou McDonald became Sinn Féin President, taking over from Gerry Adams who had held the position for 34 years.

Since then, the Dublin politician has sought to distance her party from criticism about its historic links to IRA violence.

She was previously the party's vice-president.

McDonald's upbringing is very different from other leading Sinn Féin politicians.

She comes from a middle-class background and was brought up in Rathgar, viewed as one of Dublin's most desirable suburbs.

McDonald attended a private fee-paying school before studying English literature at Trinity College.

She has been a member of the Dáil for the Dublin Central constituency since 2011.

Before winning that seat, McDonald was the party’s first MEP, elected to the European Parliament in 2004.

Hayley Halpin
BBC News NI

Image source, PA Media

Jennifer Whitmore, a Social Democrats TD for Wicklow, told RTÉ News that the tallies have been “positive” for her, adding she hopes to be in the top three when the results are in.

“It’s been a really positive campaign for the Social Democrats across the country,” she said.

Asked what the Social Democrats position would be if two of the bigger parties came to her party seeking to form a coalition, Whitmore said: “We’ve been always really clear to the public in the run up to this election that we will talk to everybody.

“We do want to be in government, we want to make sure that we can affect change and that’s why we were very clear from the get-go about what our non-negotiables were."

She said the party has five non-negotiables, on topics such as housing and healthcare.

The Social Democrats was founded in 2015 and is currently led by Holly Cairns TD. It is a left-wing party who say they believe in "an inclusive, fair and just Ireland in which dignity, respect and equality of outcome are paramount".

Image source, PA Media

Simon Harris is currently the Taoiseach (Irish prime minister), and made history by becoming the youngest person to take up the role. He was 37 at the time.

He leads the Fine Gael party - he took over the role from Leo Varadkar in March of this year.

Prior to this, he was the minister for further and higher education.

Harris was the youngest member of the 31st Dáil (lower house of Irish parliament) at the age of 24 and became health minister in 2016.

There, he led the department during a change in Ireland's abortion law and at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic as emergency lockdown measures were introduced.

Born in Greystones, he married in 2017 and has two children.

Barry O'Connor
BBC News NI

Image source, Donegal Daily

In some count boxes across the country, people have given more than just their vote.

Reports of wedding rings have been found in boxes in County Donegal and County Westmeath.

Image source, RTÉ

While in a box at Meath East a miraculous medal, a religious item that has an image of Mary the Mother of Jesus, has been found by the returning officer.

Image source, Getty Images

Politics in the Republic has traditionally been dominated by two parties - Fianna Fáil, which was once seen as more centrist, and Fine Gael as more conservative.

However, over the years these differences have blurred and both are now seen as centre-right parties.

Four years ago Fianna Fáil won 38 seats and Fine Gael ended up with 35.

To gain a governing majority, a coalition government was formed between Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party.

Sinn Féin are the main opposition party after making significant gains in 2020 and topping the popular vote, winning 37 seats.

Other parties putting forward candidates for the election include Labour, Social Democrats, PBP-Solidarity, Aontú and the newly-formed Independent Ireland.

Barry O'Connor
BBC News NI

Image source, Reuters

Seán Ó Fearghaíl, the Ceann Comhairle (speaker), has been re-elected to the Dáil for Kildare South.

In the Republic of Ireland the Ceann Comhairle does not seek re-election as a TD, but rather is deemed automatically to have been re-elected by their constituency at that general election, unless they are retiring.

The constituency that an incumbent Ceann Comhairle represents elects one fewer TD in a general election than its usual entitlement, but still has the same number of TDs.

The Fianna Fáil TD has served in the role since 2016.

Hayley Halpin
BBC News NI

Image source, PA Media

Speaking to RTÉ News, Minister for the Environment and former Green Party leader Eamon Ryan said today has been "very disappointing" for his party.

"I think we can still return people to the Oireachtas, I heard people saying there we would get zero seats, I’m not sure that will be the case, we’ll have to wait and see," Ryan said.

"It’s been a hard day for us, but we’re proud and proud of the work we’ve done, the campaign we’ve run.," he said.

Ryan said the Green Party has been "in this place before", but he said "you accept it and you listen and you learn and you come back stronger".

"We’ve done that before and I’m convinced we can and will do it again."

Ryan announced on 18 June that he was stepping down as leader of the Green Party and would not contest this general election. Minister for Integration Roderic O'Gorman was then elected as the party's new leader.

Ryan's decision to step down came after the local and European elections, which saw the Green Party lose both of its MEP seats. The party's number of local councillors was also halved.

He had been leader of the Greens in the Republic of Ireland since 2011 and was first elected to the Dáil (Irish parliament) in 2002.

He has been a TD for Dublin Bay South since 2016.

Jennifer O'Leary
BBC News NI, reporting from Dublin

Image source, PA Media

Irish election counts can be political theatre at its most intense – the country’s single transferable vote system, instead of ‘first past the post’, makes for a lengthy and sometimes dramatic process as the count unfolds.

The only certainty so far is that the next government will be a coalition - none of the parties have enough candidates to secure an overall majority.

For a three week campaign that was largely lack lustre, last night’s exit poll suggests the two larger parties in the outgoing coalition government, Fine Gael at 21 per cent and Fianna Fáil at 19, will be in the driving seat to re-establish a coalition government.

Sinn Féin, the party already in government across the border in Northern Ireland, edged the photo finish at 21.1 percent of first preference votes.

But its path to power is impeded because Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have vehemently ruled out a coalition with Sinn Féin.

In what may become a defining story of this election – an independent candidate, Gerard ‘The Monk’ Hutch, a notorious gangland crime figure, appears to be well in contention for a seat in the Irish parliament.

The true picture will only emerge after all the votes are counted and it may be Monday before the final result is called.

Adam Mandeville
BBC News NI reporter in Dublin West

There is a distinct air of the calm before the storm here in the Dublin West count centre.

Finance Minister Jack Chambers and Sinn Féin's Paul Donnelly are likely to retain their seats and Fine Gael's County Tyrone native Emer Currie will likely replace the former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, who is stepping down, as the party's sole TD in the constituency.

There is a palpable sense here, even at this early stage, that a shock might be on the cards.

Roderic O’Gorman, leader of the Green Party, could very well be in danger of losing his seat.

As it stands, he’ll likely be in a battle with the likes of John Walsh (Labour Party) and Ellen Troy (Aontu) for the fifth and final seat in Dublin West.

Enda McClafferty
BBC News NI political editor

Image source, PA Media

Sinn Féin has rediscovered its swagger after limping into the election campaign three weeks ago.

The party is quietly confident it will secure the popular vote and return the largest number of TDs, with some predicting it could end up with 40 plus seats.

One party insider believes he will be cashing in on a bet after backing Sinn Féin to return the most seats at a price of 9/2.

But Fianna Fáil could yet scupper that bet.

It is in the running for more seats and much will depend on transfers from Fine Gael.

Sinn Féin has polled well but less clear is how it will use that support to enter government.

Judging by the early tallies, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are best placed to return to the government benches and may between them end up with between 75 and 80, just short of the 88 needed to secure a majority.

Both parties have ruled out sharing power with Sinn Féin.

That leaves Mary Lou McDonald contemplating other options including the possibility of a minority government with other left leaning parties and some independent TDs.

Image source, PA Media

With the exit polls predicting such a tight result it could be a very long count for those working in the election centres.

One count centre worker is counting ballots wearing a t-shirt that says 'maybe I like the misery'.

The quote is from Mrs Doyle in the hit Irish sitcom Father Ted when someone tries to sell her a tea making machine.

There will need to be plenty of tea served over the next days to keep the count staff going.

So get the kettle on and stick with us for your coverage, go on, you will, you will, you will!

Kevin Sharkey
BBC News NI

Image source, PA Media

Speculation mounts that a number of outgoing TDs and some Ministers could be in trouble as initial tallies emerge from many constituencies.

In Dublin Central, Gerry Hutch, also known as 'The Monk' could at this stage be in the running for a seat.

In 2016 he was cleared of murdering a man during a boxing weigh-in at a Dublin hotel and earlier this month, was released on bail from custody in Spain.

Hutch was one of nine people arrested in Spain as part of a joint international investigation between the Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the Guardia Civil into money laundering by the Hutch Organised Crime Group.

The investigation is focused on the alleged movements of large sums of money and the purchase of a number of properties in Spain.

The Spanish authorities described the nine as "alleged members of a gang of international criminals who are being investigated as alleged perpetrators of money laundering crimes by a criminal organisation".

Hutch was described in a statement from the High Court in the Canary Islands as "the alleged leader of an international gang of criminals".

Read more about how his trial made international headlines here.

Claire Dickson
BBC News NI

Leader of the Social Democrats Holly Cairns gave birth to her first child yesterday at Cork University Maternity Hospital.

Posting on her Instagram page, the Cork South-West candidate said 'She's here, we're completely in love with her'.

Commenting on being pregnant and running for election she said its been a "juggling act".

In the last two weeks of campaigning, deputy leader Cian O'Callaghan took Cairns' place in RTE's leaders debate.

Hayley Halpin
BBC News NI

Image source, PA Media

The Green Party have been in a coalition government with Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil since 2020.

So far, things aren't looking all too positive for them this time around.

Green Party leader Roderic O'Gorman has accepted that some of his party colleagues will lose their seats.

"It's clear the Green Party has not had a good day," he said.

Overall, O'Gorman said it's a disappointing result.

RTÉ political correspondent Mícheál Lehane says the Green Party "look like they might lose all their seats in this election".

"Right now the party's best chance of holding a seat looks to be in Dublin West where Green Leader Roderic O'Gorman is hanging on."

Friday's exit poll indicated the Green's first preference support stands at 4%.