Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
Updated 8.39am
FINE GAEL AND Labour look to be well short of an overall majority after today’s General Election, according to the first exit polls.
The RTÉ exit poll this morning shows that based on first preference votes the parties are at these percentages:
Fine Gael 24.8%
Fianna Fáil 21.1%
Sinn Féin 16%
Labour 7.1%
Independents 11%
AAA/PBP 4.7%
Soc Dems 3.7%
Green Party 3.6%
Independent Alliance 3%
Renua 2.4%
Others 2.6%
This poll was conducted at 225 polling stations, with randomly selected 4283 people.
Last night’s Irish Times exit poll showed similar results.
A tragedy
Responding to the results of the exit poll on Morning Ireland, Fine Gael’s general secretary Tom Curran conceded his party looks likely to “fall short”.
He said he was conscious of the fact that “good people that stood for both Fine Gael and the Labour party will probably lose their seats either today or tomorrow and that is a tragedy.”
“If it’s true, it’s hard to put a finger on what one thing went wrong, the most important thing is we have to accept the decision of the electorate of that is the decision.”
From the Taoiseach’s point of view, he will be very disappointed and will be taking stock.
Labour TD Derek McDowell said “it’s clearly not going to be a good day” for his party.
Clearly we’re going to lose some good comrades in the course of he day and I’m very sorry about that.
When it comes to winning seats, Labour will be looking at how the independent vote splinters, he said. He expects between eight and nine seats but they could win more of independent votes transfer to Labour candidates.
“If they transfer between each other, frankly, we’re in for a very bad day,” he commented.
Coalition?
Fianna Fáil’s director of elections, TD Billy Kelleher, said it was an “anxious and nervous” morning for the party’s candidates.
He said that if the poll is reflective of the actual outcome of the election, Fianna Fáil will have met its targets, though he pointed out that none of the ballot boxes have yet been opened and there may well be some surprises today.
When asked if he still believed it would not be credible for his party to join Fine Gael in a coalition, Kelleher said that if a political party wanted to retain its identity, it had to stand up and campaign on its policies, they could not “in the same breath, say you can move that if things don’t work out”.
The results of the poll indicate support for Fianna Fáil is strongest among the older cohort of voters, and weak with younger groups. Kelleher said the challenge now for the party would be in attracting these younger voters by introducing new candidates.
A new alignment
Anti Austerity Alliance TD Paul Murphy described the results of the poll as “a political earthquake”.
He said it will mean instability from the point of view of the political establishment, with the Labour party now “in very, very deep crisis”.
With a result of 3.7% for the Social Democrats in RTÉ’s exit poll, Roisín Shortall was feeling positive.
“Certainly, if that was to translate into the actual vote in this election, we’d be very happy with that,” she said.
She said it would be a big win for the party considering it has only been in existence for the last eight months and had been “operating on a shoestring in many ways”, dependent, for the most part, on young volunteers.
Results like these indicate, she said, “a new alignment happening in Irish politics”, and it had been clear throughout the campaign that voters were looking for something different.
“The pitch that Fine Gael put to people about putting more money in people’s pockets by cutting taxes simply was not believeable by the public.”
- With reporting by Michelle Hennessy.
I’m amazed animal circuses are still legal in so called civilised countries.
@Sheldon: As long as those uneducated in the cruelty imposed on circus animals continue to pay to attend circuses, these cruel businesses will continue to exist.
Some people are still of the opinion, even in 2018, that attending a circus is a ‘Great day out’.
Further education is needed.
@Sheldon: In a country where traumatising and torturing a bull is a national pastime, I would imagine concern for the welfare of circus animals is non-existent.
@Karen Lord: Bullfighting isn’t even popular over there. It relies on heavy subsidies from the State to stay in business because most Spanish think it is as disgusting as we do? Can we talk though? We round up wild hares and terrorize them every year in hare coursing events.
@Sean: and fox hunting
@Sean: look at the popularity of events like San Fermín. There’s clearly a significant portion of the population that isn’t too concerned about animal welfare.
@Sheldon: my thought exactly!they should be banned.
Why o why is it permitted to have these wonderful animals caged up, it astonishes me that Ivory sales have been banned since 1947 and yet society permits the abuse of these animals in circus’s it’s outrageous, perhaps the EU might consider doing something useful for a change and ban this practice across Europe
This is just desperately sad. A huge trauma for these poor noble creatures in their already miserable existence. Big sigh.
D dead 1 had a lucky escape from captivity.
Sad
We need to ban circuses from using animals. It’s just appalling that a beautiful animal died in such a manner today.
@Catherine Sims: dreadful but at least now he wont have to suffer performing any more
@Mary Oliver: He is dead though. Dead is never a better alternative. He might not be performing but he or she isn’t doing anything anymore.
Their journey was truncated.
@Minom Pnnomm: Man child
Can people like myself who eat meat even complain about this? Look how livestock are treated. Just because it’s elephants probably should not mean that some animals are more equal than others.
@Kevin Kirkpatrick: it’s because we have some weird grading based on how sentient the animal is. In other words if the animal is clever and capable of emotion we show treat it better than we do say chickens. Of course when this so called system was evolving animals like pigs were considered to be very dumb. Recent findings of how intelligent these animals are is just conveniently ignored.
@Catherine Sims: Pigs are at least as smart as dogs. I find it hard to take outrage at incidents like this seriously when people don’t seem to have a problem with how our meat is produced.
@Kevin Kirkpatrick: agreed. I don’t eat meat but I can understand the difference between eating meat for subsidence and just using animals for entertainment. Either way, animals in the meat industry should be treated better and transport of live animals should be barred. Ban Halal meat for a start.
@john Appleseed: I don’t eat meat either but our meat Industry for the most part is not the horror story it is in other countries . Apart from bacon maybe. We are better are looking after our animals produced for food. That not an excuse as I said I don’t eat meat. There is also a huge movement on having wild animals in captivity at all. Animals like elephants should be roaming around d their natural environments in Africa and India. The problem is of course animals are still hunted to extinction and zoos are important for their breeding programs. It’s a huge issue with many layers.
This just makes my blood boil!!. There should be a complete ban on animals in circuses. Don’t even get me started on the way farmers treat their animals. It’s an absolute disgrace and nothing is said about it. From a chicken to an elephant, they should all be given respect.
5 elephants in 1 truck….
By the way I have been a vegetarian for the past 30 years.
have your say