Live BlogLAST UPDATE | 33 mins ago
IT’S FINALLY HERE.
After three weeks of campaigning and debates, the public will have their say on who will make up the next Dáil Éireann.
Polling stations are open around the country and will close at 10pm, with an RTÉ exit poll due shortly after that.
The exit poll results will be delivered on The Late Late Show and will give an indication of what the next government will look like.
Recent opinion polls have shown a tightening of the race, with Fine Gael and Sinn Féin neck-and-neck and Fianna Fáil enjoying a slight edge.
Join us as we keep you up to date with the latest news on polling day.
A reminder from the Electoral Commission to make sure your ballot is officially stamped:
Today, your ballot paper should be stamped by the polling staff 📃
— An Coimisiún Toghcháin, The Electoral Commission (@ElecCommIRL) November 29, 2024
If your ballot isn’t stamped, your vote won’t count, so double check your ballot paper when you receive it in the polling station 🗳️https://t.co/CIv8jvfBqQ pic.twitter.com/x4n5h6kMX5
A nice video here from RTÉ doing a mock election with children at Scoil Cholmcille An Tearmann to demonstrate PR-STV in action. (Who’d you vote for? The ice-cream party?)
A lot of fun putting this together with the brilliant students at my old school, Scoil Cholmcille An Tearmann.
— Barry Gallagher (@b_gallagher2) November 28, 2024
Hopefully this comes in handy for someone out there 🗳️#Election2024 https://t.co/KSr7qNzKng
Harris also said he expects it to be a “fascinating couple of days” of counting the votes before the final result emerges.
“Isn’t it the beauty and the complexity of our system that when the clock strikes 10 o’clock tonight, there’ll be an exit poll but that won’t even tell us the outcome of the election because of our PR-STV,” he said.
He took a bit of a dig at the UK’s approach: “Compare and contrast that with the British system, Big Ben hits 10 o’clock and Sky News can say ‘the winner is…’ we don’t live in that sort of system.”
Rather, with Ireland’s system, he said, “where the fourth seat goes in a five-seat constituency or where that third seat goes in a crucial third-seat constituency, that – I believe – it’s going to play a major role in deciding the composition of the next government and the relative strength of potentially different parties in that coalition government”.
Speaking to media earlier as he arrived at his polling stations at Delgany National School in Co Wicklow, Simon Harris said he was “feeling really good” and “really hopeful – hopeful in terms of the election but also hopeful for the future of our country”.
“I wanted to vote early because I now want to head across our country today, continuing to encourage everyone to get out and have their say in this election.”
He’s expected to make a whirlwind tour around parts of the country today, stopping in Dublin, Carlow, Laois, Monaghan and Tipperary.
In the competitive constituency of Dublin Central, turnout has been slow so far at the St Paul’s CBS polling station. They’re expecting the usual post-work rush this evening.
Taoiseach and Fine Gael leader Simon Harris has been out with his wife Caoimhe and his children Cillian and Saoirse to cast his vote.
If you need to look up which candidates are running in your area or learn a little bit about them, our candidate database is a handy tool.
Don’t forget your umbrella! Met Éireann is forecasting a wet and breezy morning, with outbreaks of rain in the west and southwest of the country spreading nationwide by noon. The afternoon looks to be a bit drier with some sunny spells before the weather turns wetter again in the late evening.
If you need something to listen to on your way to vote, the latest episode of our podcast The Explainer is all about how exactly our voting system – proportional representation with a single transferable vote – works .
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