As the polls open and counting begins across the country, we look at politicians’ reactions to last night’s election result.

You can keep up to date with all the general election results throughout the weekend.

A common ballot at the exit of the polls carried out by Ipsos B&A on behalf of RTÉ, Irish weather, TG4 and Trinity College Dublin surveyed around 5,000 voters at 250 polling stations.

Revealed last night, the poll suggests that support for Sinn Féin is 21.1% while that for Fine Gael is 21%.

Fianna Fáil comes just behind with 19.5% of the vote, according to the poll.

Talk to Newspapers Fine Gael MEP Regina Doherty, Sean Defoe, said if she had known on polling morning that the party would get 21% of the vote in first preference votes, she would have gotten it.

“I probably would have taken less…because last week was a tough week for all of us,” she said.

“Many challenges have obviously been met for us. »

Ms Doherty said “the worry starts” when you think about the number of party incumbents.

“We went into this election with 80 candidates and only about 18 of them were already elected,” she said.

“We had so many starters and then you start to worry: Is this really going to have an impact?

“Now we see that 21%, which is as close to Sinn Fein as you can get, means people have responded to their candidates.”

Transfers

Ms Doherty hopes Fine Gael can expect a high rate of transfers due to its close relationship with Fianna Fáil over the past four years.

“I would expect, probably because we have been in power with Fianna Fáil for some time, that transfers for Fine Gael will be very different to the lonely place we were in 2020,” she said .

“We didn’t have a lot of people transferring to us at the time and we lost places.

“So, I hope tomorrow we can see more of the 21% based on the fact that the transfers are coming to us from (Fianna Fáil).”

“The largest party in the state”

Sinn Féin councilor Daithí Doolan also joined the show, saying his party was happy with its 21.1% first preference vote from the opinion poll.

Mr Doolan notes that the votes have not yet been counted but that Sinn Féin is currently, after the polls, the “largest party in the state”.

“I’m confident we’ll improve our seats last time,” he said.

“We are fielding 71 candidates, which is the largest number we have ever fielded.

“I think the message we took to the doors until 5-10 p.m. was positive, progressive change, in healthcare, housing, education and billing for a united Ireland.”

Mr Doolan said people were responding “very positively” to Sinn Féin’s plans.

“Most importantly, we need to make sure that translates into seats, because we have a big task ahead of us to fix the health care system, solve the housing crisis, solve the child care crisis and lay the foundations for a united Ireland. » he said.

“I’m very happy with the 21.1%…and we’ll see what happens.”

Newstalk journalists will be present at counting centers across Ireland to bring you all the results as they arrive.

We’ll also be airing election specials today and tomorrow, and you can catch all the action. on our live blog and on our social networks.

Picture shows: R, Irish Examiner Special Correspondent Mick Clifford and L, Fine Gael MEP Regina Doherty. Image: Newstalk