Government formation talks will resume later this week with the picture clouded further due to the coronavirus.

Like a person who at an all-is-possible drinks party promised to take a Christmas Day plunge in the sea when they find themselves shivering on a beach, freezing waves washing their ankles, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil can hardly defer what now seems unavoidable for much longer.

Fine Gael leader, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, is prepared to “let Micheál Martin sweat” and did not seek a mandate to continue talks with Fianna Fáil from his party.

The result of the general election seems to have rocked the political status quo in Ireland.

Opening government formation talks between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have established “common ground” but there are still "significant policy differences".

Leo Varadkar has insisted this is not the first meeting in negotiations to enter government, but rather exploratory talks.

It's the highest ever result for Sinn Féin in an opinion poll in the Republic of Ireland.

Department of Public Expenditure Robert Watt is this morning giving a presentation to the two parties, on finances and spending.

A council motion seeking ministerial intervention to re-instate Joe Brolly as an RTÉ football analyst has been described as “a waste of paper it is on”.

Outgoing Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is set to press his rival Micheal Martin for equal treatment for Fine Gael if it enters coalition with Fianna Fail.

Fianna Fáil says that a coalition between itself and Sinn Féin is not an impossibility, but would be predicated on Mary Lou McDonald’s party “dealing with the issues” raised by Micheál Martin in the aftermath of Thursday's Dáil votes for Taoiseach.

Next weekend, EU leaders meet in Brussels for what, in the lexicon of diplomacy, is expected to be a four-shirter — a streetwise description of a meeting unlikely to conclude quickly. Whether discussions to form a government here become as bitter remains to be seen.

'As Sunday turned into Monday, FF began to lose seats they should have won. And by the end of the day, only a three-party government was possible. And doubts immediately began to creep in.'

“That looks to me like it's the only real option at the moment. So I think what we're now doing is a kind of a mating dance with a result - which looks like it's going to be a Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael coalition," he said.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin considers Sinn Féin not a ‘normal’ democratic party. Fine Gael Taoiseach Leo Varadkar agrees. Do they think it is, as Fianna Fáil Taoiseach Sean Lemass said of his party in 1926, ‘a slightly constitutional party’?

Ambition is little more than the capacity to put conviction before doubt.

He has added his voice to Jim O'Callaghan and Anne Rabitte.

Fianna Fáil's new and returning TDs and senators will debate the issue when its parliamentary party meets on Thursday at midday in Leinster House.

Fianna Fáil will be the biggest party in the 33rd Dáil after the counting finished in General Election 2020 with Cavan-Monaghan the final constituency to announcing their result just before midnight.

As the dust begins to settle on Election 2020, the headaches mount for Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin.

Count centres across the country have reopened this morning as Day 2 of the count gets underway.

Only a generation ago, Fine Gael were able to take three of the four seats in the Cork East constituency. Now they're barely able to hold onto one.

With almost 100 of the 160 seats filled in the 33rd Dáil, Fianna Fáil looks set to emerge as the biggest party with more than 41 seats.

The last three seats in Cork East were decided on Count 8 when Sean Sherlock (Lab) reached the quota and FG junior minister David Stanton and FF's new kid on the block, James O'Connor, were elected without reaching the magic figure.

The electorate has, or at least a very significant proportion of it, again shown it has a greater appetite for change, a greater appreciation of the urgent need to reorder fundamentals than too many politicians.

Pat Buckley, from Midleton, topped the poll with an impressive 12,587 first preferences, which got him elected on the first count as the quota was 10,909.

Pat Buckley was elected on the first count in Cork East.

The prospects for FG junior minister David Stanton have improved and many believe that he will now win the second seat being well ahead of his running partner Pa O'Driscoll.

Sinn Féin Cavan-Monaghan candidate Pauline Tully has said a video of her campaign van playing a pro-IRA song may have been faked.