The Voting's Over And The Horse-Trading Begins

Fianna Fáil Votes Holds Up, Sinn Féin And PDs Down

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern proved that his skills at election time have not diminished as Fianna Fáil maintained their share of the vote and emerged from the General Election as the largest party in the Republic, despite continuing revelations of financial irregularities from the Mahon Tribunal.

Turnout in the General Election was up almost 5% from 2002, at 67.3%.

Fianna Fáil's percentage of the vote was up slightly to 41.6% and, while they lost three seats overall (leaving them with 78 in total), they did better than expected in the commuter belt outside Dublin.

Fine Gael were the big winners in the election, seeing their share of the vote increasing by 4.84% to 27.32% and gaining 20 seats - though this is probably not enough to see Enda Kenny, who celebrates five years at the Fine Gael helm, form a government.

The reason for this is that the Labour Party, their main coalition partners, failed to increase their share of the vote and lost one seat, taking their total down to 20.

PDs Decimated

The most disasterous performance on election day was registered by the government's junior coalition partner.

The Progressive Democrats saw their percentage of the vote fall by 1.23%, down to 2.73%, losing eight of their ten seats in the process - including that of their leader Tanaiste and Justice Minister Michael McDowell who was defeated in Dublin South East by Green Party leader John Gormley.

Conceding defeat on Sunday, Mr. McDowell told reporters that he was very proud of having had the opportunity to serve in public office but that "The people have made their choice nd I respect their choice as a democrat.

"My period in public life as a public representative is over." The Progressive Democrat leadership position returns again to Mary Harney who, together with Noel Grealish, were the only PDs returned to office.

Sinn Féin, Greens Fail To Make Breakthrough

Despite increasing their share of the vote by 0.43%, to 6.94%, Sinn Féin failed to make their hoped for breakthrough in the South.

Despite pre-election predictions that saw them winning four extra seats, they actually ended the election down one.

Their most prominent candidate, MEP Mary Lou McDonald actually saw her vote fall by 5.4& in Dublin Central.

Though the Green Party was expected to perform better in this election, they still increased their share of the vote by 0.85% to 4.69% and hold six seats in the new Dáil.

Responding to the results the party's leader Trevor Sargent srefused to rule out a coalition with either of the two main parties noting that, "We have held our representation in Dáil Éireann and increased our vote in extremely difficult circumstances. We experienced the same 'squeeze' as other small parties, but unlike Sinn Féin, the PDs, Labour and the Socialists, we managed to maintain our level of representation."

Fianna Fáil Looks To Coalition With PDs, Independents

Reports emerged on Monday that Bertie Ahern was looking to form a new governing coalition with the rump of the Progressive Democrats and Fianna Fáil-friendly Independents. Though he was at pains to note that he wouldn't rule out a coalition with the Greens or Labour, he did tell Sky News that they were "less likely' options for coalition.

With his 78 Fianna Fáil T.D.s and the two Progressive Democrat deputies, Mr. Ahern will need to secure the support of three independents.

Mr Ahern said: "They [the PDs] have two seats: Mary Harney was elected and her colleague Deputy Grealish in the West of Ireland; and then there are a number of Independents who would be fairly close to my party - there's at least three of those.

"And then, of course, there's the Greens that is another consideration. And probably less likely, but I think some thought will be given to it, the Labour party," he concluded.