The Government has suffered a blow after failing to win any seats in four byelections which could provide clues before the whole country goes to the polls next year.

The results of the first counts in all four constituencies are in.

The Green Party is celebrating its first ever by-election victory in Dublin-Fingal after Joe O'Brien secured the seat vacated by Clare Daly after the eighth count.

Latest:: The Green Party's Joe O'Brien has been elected in Dublin-Fingal.

Fianna Fáil's Malcolm Byrne has said there is no place for racism in politics after being elected in the Wexford by-election.

Fianna Fail's Padraig O'Sullivan claimed the seat in the Cork North-Central by-election on the tenth count.

Latest 7.20pm: Verona Murphy has been eliminated from the Wexford By-election.

Fine Gael's James Reilly has described Verona Murphy's comments about migrants as “very hurtful” and said he rejected them totally.

Sinn Fein's Mark Ward has been elected to the Dail on the ninth count in the Dublin Mid West by-election, a result party leader Mary Lou McDonald said was a good day for the “working class”.

Latest: Senator Colm Burke was eliminated in the ninth count of the Cork North-Central by-election.

The performance of Labour's John Maher has marked him out as a contender for 2020, according to Labour TD Sean Sherlock.

Latest: Sinn Féin candidate Mark Ward has been elected to the Dáil following the Dublin Mid-West by-election.

Fine Gael byelection candidate Verona Murphy has insisted she will be running for the party in the next General Election.

Fine Gael's Colm Burke is optimistic about his chances of securing a seat in the General Election in 2020 but conceded that it is now unlikely that he will secure a seat in the by-election.

"The story of Cork North-Central is the collapse of the hard left," said Tánaiste Simon Coveney.

Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan has denied claims made by Fine Gael's Wexford candidate Verona Murphy that she was the subject of a character assassination.

Fine Gael's director of elections for Wexford, Charlie Flanagan, has arrived at the count centre where Fianna Fáils Malcolm Byrne looks set to top the poll.

Pádraig O'Sullivan looks "destined" to win the seat vacated by party colleague Billy Kelleher earlier this year, he added.

Minister Creed conceded that a Fianna Fáil victory is all but a certainty today.

The county councillor has 28.19% of the vote after the tally, giving him a seven-point lead over Fine Gael's Colm Burke.

The by-election is to replace Fine Gael TD Frances Fitzgerald who was elected as an MEP in May.

With business exceedingly slow at polling stations yesterday, it is clear the four by-elections have not captured the public’s imagination.

Voter turnout is still slow in the four by-elections being held today.

Polls will stay open until 10pm this evening in the votes to replace the four TDs elected to the European Parliament in May.

Voting centres opened at 7am and will stay open until 10pm this evening.

The Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has yet to speak to the Transport Minister Shane Ross about “interference” by Fine Gael byelection candidate Verona Murphy in the operation of the Road Safety Authority (RSA).

A party man through and through, Fianna Fáil’s Malcolm Byrne is very different than the man he seeks to replace, writes Michael Clifford.

Fine Gael by-election candidate Verona Murphy has been criticised after failing to take part in two panel debates.

Mr Varadkar travelled to Wexford yesterday where he spent around 40 minutes meeting locals with the Fine Gael candidate.

Mick Wallace was known as a straight talker in the Dáil and it will be a straight shootout between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to replace him.

The growing pains of this vibrant and bustling constituency are clear for all to see.

Voters in Dublin Mid-West aren’t talking about immigration. They’re far more worried about housing, transport, and a little boy named Sam, writes Juno McEnroe

Fine Gael’s best chance of winning one of the four by-elections is in Dublin Mid-West.

Fine Gael's by-election candidate Verona Murphy has broken her silence to express "deep regret" over comments she made about asylum seekers.

He told Newstalk Breakfast that he thought some politicians were “playing the race card” because they think it will work in their favour and they were doing it by using comments like “we have to house our own.”

Some four decades after he first put his name forward for election to the Dáil, Fine Gael Senator Colm Burke is hoping that the result might finally fall in his favour.

Ms Murphy has apologised for remarks made to multiple media organisations in which she suggested that those who seek asylum in Ireland need to be "deprogrammed".

Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan has told the Dáil he “categorically disassociates” himself from comments made by Fine Gael's Wexford by-election candidate Verona Murphy about migrants.

In an unexpected twist to the confidence and supply arrangement, Fianna Fáil’s by-election candidate in Dublin-Fingal, Senator Lorraine Clifford-Lee, provided cover for Fine Gael’s Wexford candidate Verona Murphy. It’s the reverse of the domino effect.

However, members from across the opposition have lashed out at Ms Murphy who suggested asylum seeker children as young as three years of age need to be "deprogrammed" as they may have been manipulated by ISIS.

“Charlie is a decent man, but he has over stepped the mark,” Mr Howlin told RTÉ Radio’s Today with Séan O’Rourke show.

The Green Party expects to secure a sizeable chunk of the vote in the upcoming poll, says Elaine Loughlin.

The Tánaiste has defended Verona Murphy and said that he would not call for her deselection.

It is all eyes on Fianna Fáil in Cork North-Central where the party is scrambling to continue its presence in the wake of Billy Kelleher’s departure to Europe.