- Dublin Mid-West: Final tally sees Sinn Féin's Mark Ward shoot ahead
- Dublin Fingal: Early tallies see the Green Party best-placed to take the seat
- Wexford: Counting underway with no clear indications as of yet
- Cork North Central: Fianna Fail's Padraig O'Sullivan looks set to top the poll
Latest - 11 am: Dublin Mid-West
With all boxes tallied in Dublin Mid-West, Mark Ward is in the lead, shooting ahead of Cllr Emer Higgins.
Finished tally for DMW just in. Leaders are:
Ward (4374)
Higgins (3412)
Gogarty (2329)
Moynihan (2163)
Timmins (1265)
Tuffy (1219)
Kavanagh (1177)#iestaff #BE19
See @irishexaminer shortly pic.twitter.com/1GUd4AUI5v— Juno McEnroe (@Junomaco) November 30, 2019
The Fine Gael candidate is not polling as well as expected but took Paul Gogarty's second-place when boxes in her areas opened.
Gogarty, the independent candidate and former TD, is hoping to gain from transfers as he falls behind in Higgins' areas.
The final tally results are as follows:
- Mark Ward - 4374
- Emer Higgins - 3412
- Paul Gogarty - 2329
- Shane Moynihan - 2163
- Francis Timmons - 1265
- Joanna Tuffy - 1219
- Peter Kavanagh - 1177
Latest - 11 am: Dublin Fingal
In Dublin Fingal, 50% of the boxes have been opened.
Green Party candidate Joe O'Brien has 25% of the vote.
Fianna Fáil’s Lorraine Clifford-Lee, who has served as a senator since 2016, has 16.5% of the vote.
Fine Gael's James Reilly has 13% of the vote, while Dean Mulligan for Independents 4 Change has 11% of the vote.
Sinn Féin are at the bottom of the pile with 5.5% of the vote.
Latest - 11am: Wexford:
Three-quarters of the boxes have been opened in Wexford.
It looks like it's going to be very close between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil in the Wexford By-election.
Both Verona Murphy and Malcolm Byrne are polling strongly for their respective parties, however, no official tally has been released yet.
Fianna Fáil's Malcolm Byrne has been polling strongly in his area of Gorey and may have the overall lead.
Boxes from Wexford Town are being opened at the moment, with early indications of a strong vote for Labour's George Lawlor there.
Latest - 11 am Cork North Central:
Fianna Fáil's Padraig O'Sullivan looks set to top the poll. Two-thirds of boxes have been tallied and the secondary school teacher has 28% of first preference votes.
It's a close race between Fine Gael's Colm Burke and Sinn Fein's Thomas Gould for second at this stage. with early signs of a geographical split.
Blarney boxes are favouring Fine Gael Senator Colm Burke, Glanmire favouring Pádraig O’Sullivan, and the city favouring Cllr Thomas Gould of Sinn Féin and John Maher for the Labour Party.
Latest - 10 am: Dublin Mid-West
With 62 out of 111 boxes opened, early tallies indicate Sinn Féin's Mark Ward ahead, following closely by Fine Gael's Emer Higgins and then former Green Party TD, now Independent, Paul Gogarty.
Turnout in Dublin Mid-West could be well below 30%.
Latest - 10 am: Dublin Fingal
After early tallies in Dublin Fingal, the Green Party look best placed to take the seat.
Joe O'Brien is doing well both in his home patch in Skerries but also picking up votes across the constituency.
Labour's Duncan Smith is also polling well in Swords and looks like the most credible challenger.
Fianna Fáil candidate Lorraine Clifford Lee and Independent Dean Mulligan are also tallying well so far but it looks like a Green wave in Fingal
Latest - 10am: Wexford
Tallying is underway in the Wexford byelection.
The counting will begin with boxes in the Gorey area before moving towards Enniscorthy and New Ross and back to Wexford Town.
Latest - 10am: Cork North Central
Early tallies in Cork North Central show a three-horse race for the seat.
13% of boxes have been tallied and we should get a first count by mid-morning.
The Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael candidates appear to be performing strongly.
Earlier: 9.00am
Counting is underway in four byelections being held to fill the seats vacated by TDs elected to the European Parliament.
Turnout yesterday for the byelections in Cork North-Central, Dublin Fingal, Dublin Mid-West and Wexford was very low but counting is set to last several hours with final results not due until this evening.
As no candidate in any of the four constituencies is expected to reach the quota of 50% plus one vote on the first count, several further counts in each constituency are expected.
Various factor like the weather, the proximity to the upcoming election and perhaps even the Late Late Toy Show all played their part in voters staying home.
Voters in Dublin-Fingal, Cork North-Central, Dublin Mid-West and Wexford had their chance to select who they wanted to replace TDs who were elected to the European Parliament in May.
The primary significance of the votes counted this morning and this afternoon will be to determine if the Government's already shaky position in the Dáil holds or is weakened further.
It is entirely plausible for Fine Gael to lose all four of the seats, and given one of those vacated seats was held by former Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald, were that to happen, the party's ability to pass legislation would be in doubt.
Its best hope of any seat is Lucan-based councillor Emer Higgins in the Dublin Mid-West constituency. Believing the latent goodwill toward Fitzgerald will be enough to see Higgins home, Fine Gael has thrown the kitchen sink at her campaign, but the big question is whether she is transfer-friendly enough.
But the low turn-out could easily throw up a surprise and the name of Paul Gogarty, the former Green TD, keeps coming up as a potential upset.
As for Fianna Fáil, it looks certain to win at least two of the four seats.
Given where we find ourselves in the political cycle (Fine Gael in office for 8 years), it is the very least the party can expect to win if it has real ambitions to win power next time.
Cork North-Central appears to be heading the way of Fianna Fáil councillor Pádraig O'Sullivan who is looking to retain the seat vacated by Billy Kelleher.
O'Sullivan has run an effective campaign and Kelleher's visible support for him during the campaign has helped his case.
But in saying that, some have expressed surprise as to how positively Fine Gael Senator Colm Burke is coming over and could push O'Sullivan close.
Fianna Fáil's other big hope is Gorey-based councillor Malcolm Byrne in Wexford. Buoyed by a strong showing in the May European elections, Byrne looks well placed to capitalise on the controversy which has engulfed Fine Gael candidate Verona Murphy.
However, were Ms Murphy to win out or come a close second, it would create a big dilemma for Leo Varadkar as to his ticket selection for the General Election. Ms Murphy's comments on migrants needing to be “de-programmed” have been disowned by her own senior party colleagues.
Fianna Fáil are also hoping for a strong showing from Fingal-based Senator Lorraine Clifford-Lee who is in a three-horse race with Labour Councillor Duncan Smith and Green Party Councillor Joe O'Brien.
The first job facing the newly elected TDs will be the motion of confidence in Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy on Tuesday and the outcome of the by-elections is keenly awaited because of the government's minority position in the Dáil.
Additional reporting Daniel McConnell
