The Government is to challenge MEPs who rejected its nomination of a senior finance chief to a top job in Europe, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has claimed.

The counting is ongoing for the European elections and early signs in Dublin show that Sinn Féin's Mary Lou McDonald, Joe Higgins of the Socialist Party and Fianna Fáil's Eoin Ryan will battle it out for the third seat there.

Both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael could be in danger of losing an MEP, according to an Irish Times /TNS mrbi poll of the four European constituencies.

Labour MEP Proinsias DeRossa has questioned the Government’s reaction to a response to dealing with a possible terrorist strike at the Sellafield Nuclear Plant in Britain.