It's been a “change” election in so many ways, but one certainty we cling to is that we’re stuck in the same old territory when it comes to the election of women to the Dáil.

Sinn Féin's Mary Lou McDonald has been elected on the first count in Dublin Central.

Sinn Féin housing spokesman Eoin Ó Broin has warned that any party refusing to talk to his and others to form a government will be "punished" by voters if they force a second election on the country.

Despite dire weather warnings turnout has been strong in many constituencies, with turnout exceeding 40% of the electorate in some areas.

His announcement marks the second high-profile retirement of a sitting TD from the intensely competitive constituency after the decision of Independent Minister Finian McGrath to stand down.

The 66-year-old Independent TD made the announcement as Taoiseach Leo Varadkar prepares to meet the President to formally ask that the 32nd Dáil be dissolved

Labour and the Social Democrats are targeting as many as 23 seats in the next general election — making either party a potential coalition kingmaker.

The leadership issue has been put on the back burner before the general election but unless there is a positive result, the knives will be out for Brendan Howlin, writes Political Correspondent

Super Junior Minister Finian McGrath says he would be willing to enter government with Sinn Féin or Fianna Fáil after the next general election and hammer out a deal if necessary to get his policies implemented.

All Fine Gael members selected to run in the next general election will gather today, adding to speculation that Leo Varadkar is preparing to go to the country.

The story of the anthems offers a sharp insight into how a United Ireland has been imagined by too many of those who profess to desire it as something that is united only in geography but not in much else, writes Paul Rouse.

A Cabinet minister has been accused of being over-confident in predicting the referendum to repeal the Eighth Amendment will be won by a comfortable margin.

Almost two thirds of the Cabinet have confirmed that they fully support legalising abortion up to 12 weeks and will publicly advocate and campaign to achieve it, the Irish Examiner can reveal.

We have blindly embraced social media without fully knowing how to handle it and the outing of Barry Walsh’s online behaviour has proven that, writes Elaine Loughlin.

TD Kate O’Connell has made a formal complaint to party bosses about a non-elected senior figure in Fine Gael engaging in online abuse.

The Dáil is set to gain two more TDs from the next election as Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe is a major winner in the redraw of constituency boundaries announced tonight, writes Daniel McConnell.

2016 has been a year to remember and not for all the right reasons. Political editor Daniel McConnell looks back on some key events.

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High-profile former Independent senator and marriage equality campaigner Averil Power has ruled out running in the next general election after taking up a “challenging” €95,000 a year charity sector role.

The Taoiseach Enda Kenny has just announced a number of new junior ministers in the Dáil.

Super junior minister Finian McGrath has caved in to pressure to pay his water charges bill — despite receiving advice there is no constitutional rule preventing him from being in Cabinet if he did not pay up.

People refusing to pay their water bills are to escape any legal punishment after Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil said they will not introduce new laws to prosecute debts under €500.

Divisions over the health crisis, political reform, rail links, State appointments, and agriculture still threaten to derail talks between the Independent Alliance and Fine Gael about forming a Government.

It is never easy, is it? writes Daniel McConnell

A leading Fine Gael minister has backed a former Fianna Fáil senator’s bid to be returned to the Upper House.

Gerry Adams has conceded Sinn Féin have not won enough seats to go into government and the party will return to the opposition benches.

On May 12, 1916, James Connolly, Labour’s founding father, was taken out into the yard of Kilmainham Gaol, tied to a chair, and shot dead.

Showers are blowing in from the estuary and the wind-chill factor has the brass monkeys scurrying for cover. It’s early afternoon in the village of Baldoyle, north Dublin, and it is to here that Deirdre Heney is coming to tie down a few number ones.

A potential leadership rival slapped down publicly as an “obedient employee”, claims the recovery is the party’s not the people’s, a baby narrowly avoiding a politicians’ puckered lips, and a vase broken in the very first shop entered marked Labour’s first day on the campaign trail.

Independent senator Averil Power has insisted her decision to print 73,000 calendars through the Oireachtas and send them to voters has “nothing to do with the election”, after being heavily criticised for spending taxpayers’ money on the move.

Dublin residents living along the route of a planned €20m aviation-fuel pipeline to Dublin Airport have raised safety concerns.

A leading Labour backbencher has warned Tánaiste Joan Burton the party must not be “stampeded” into a pre-election voting pact with Fine Gael and that grassroots members need to be given their say on the deal.

The first eight candidates to run for Renua Ireland in the upcoming general election have been confirmed.

On paper, the planned centre-left party has a good-looking lineout that’s far stronger than Lucinda Creighton’s Renua, writes Gerard Howlin.

If Aer Lingus is sold to IAG, Ireland could end up owning a version of it again in future, if New Zealand’s experience is any guide, writes Kyran FitzGerald.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin and his TDs yesterday moved to minimise the fallout over the shock resignation of Senator Averil Power as the party welcomed its newest TD to the Dáil.

Rebel senator Averil Power’s bombshell departure from Fianna Fáil descended into a he said/she said row as the party leadership moved to try and discredit her.

Fianna Fáil’s Micheál Martin was struggling to contain a crisis of credibility after one of the party’s most high-profile figures made an explosive exit denouncing his leadership.

Young, vibrant and willing to go out on a limb, the surprise is that Averil Power lasted so long in among the FF boys, writes Alison O’Connor

The departure of the no-nonsense senator sees Fianna Fáil return to being stale, male, and pale, writes Political Correspondent Shaun Connolly

Last weekend we witnessed politics at its finest.