Fine Gael’s Mairead McGuinness was elected to the first of the four seats on Monday.

Independent MEP Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan is set to be re-elected this morning — but a neck-and-neck race lower down the pecking order last night saw Peter Casey come within a few hundred votes of an upset.

The Government is set to publish a new climate change action report by mid-June in a bid to outline Ireland's plans to address the crisis - and woo a resurgent Green party before the general election.

Re-elected Fine Gael MEP Mairead McGuinness has said the growing chances of her and running mate Maria Walsh being winning Midlands North West European elections seats is an "absolutely magic" result.

A Sinn Féin MEP candidate has warned the party will be in "trouble" at the next general election unless it learns lessons "very, very quickly" from its local and European elections slump.

Green Party leader Eamon Ryan has admitted candidate Saoirse McHugh is looking increasingly unlikely to win a European elections seat despite "inspiring" the country with her campaign.

Five European election candidates are bracing themselves for a major battle for what looks like just three remaining seats in Midlands North West with the election count expected to drag on into the middle of this week.

Fine Gael MEP candidate Maria Walsh has backed fellow Mayo woman Greens candidate Saoirse McHugh to make a huge impact in Irish politics, saying she is a "phenomenal person".

Green Party candidate Saoirse McHugh says she is not sure how she will travel to Brussels if she is elected in the Midlands North West constituency.

Sinn Féin's sitting MEP Matt Carthy believes his Midlands North West vote haul may be up to 2% lower than Friday's exit poll suggested and that he will be in a "dog fight" for the final two European seats.

Counting is under way in the European elections where the Greens could pick up as many as three seats.

Latest: Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has suggested Leo Varadkar could be facing a worse local election performance than Enda Kenny.

The likely MEP elections Green gallop and a predicted left-leaning parties transfer trend could kick-start a debate about a long-overdue Irish "progressives" political bloc, writes political correspondent Fiachra Ó Cionnaith.

Ms McHugh, a 28-year-old environmentalist from Achill Island in Mayo, is in real contention to squeeze out both sitting MEP Luke Ming Flanagan and Fine Gael's celebrity candidate Maria Walsh for a seat in Midlands North West.

Former justice minister Frances Fitzgerald has denied the Maurice McCabe saga is undermining her European elections bid, claiming the case is not being raised by voters.

European election candidates had spent almost €60,000 combined on Facebook advertising up to last Sunday, figures made available by the social media giant have revealed.

Growing, stabilising, or stagnating?

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has insisted it was not a mistake for the party to run two candidates in some MEP constituencies amid poll fears the tactic may see the party lose out on a seat.

Post-election legal action, drinking with Nigel Farage, a brother involved in anti-Government protests, EU broadband funding demands — oh, and the little matter of the Ireland South MEP race. Fiachra Ó Cionnaith meets Fine Gael’s Sean Kelly.

BILLY “One Seat” Kelleher: that rather disparaging description of the long-standing TD and favourite MEP candidate, by his party colleague Malcolm Byrne over a perceived breach of an agreed boundary has generated much hilarity this week.

Fine Gael candidates look set to come out on top in all three European Parliament Constituencies ahead of this month's election, according to a new opinion poll.

The ballots are set for May's European elections.

Drivers who commit traffic offences - on either side of the Irish border - will be penalised once new EU laws come into force in Ireland next year.

Figures released by The Standards in Public Office Commission show that no candidates breached the spending limit of €230,000 in the recent European Elections campaign.

Fianna Fáil's Thomas Byrne has been eliminated in the Midlands North West European election following the results of the sixth count.

Nobody has been elected as a result of the third count in the Midlands North West Constituency.

The counting of votes is to resume at 9am in the Midlands Northwest constituency – where four European Parliament candidates will be elected.

Counting will resume in Cork and Castlebar this morning as efforts to elect four MEP's in Ireland South and Midlands North West continues.

Cannabis campaigner Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan is on his way from Dáil Éireann to Brussels by virtue of a sensational win in the Midlands North-West constituency.

Sinn Féin's Lynn Boylan has been elected in the Dublin constituency European elections after the third count.

The first count for the European Parliament in Dublin has been delayed by the discovery of some extra ballot papers.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has conceded a major shift in Ireland’s political landscape after voters turned in their droves to anti-austerity candidates in European, local and by-elections.

As counting continues in the European elections, it will now be tomorrow before some of the 11 MEPs are elected.

Staff at three count centres are beginning to count votes in the European elections around now.

The first election results of the day have started arrive, with Sinn Féin topping the poll in the Dublin West by-election.

Indications are that Independent Luke 'Ming' Flanagan is on course to win a European seat in the Midlands North West constituency.

Luke "Ming" Flanagan is on the canvass on Galway’s Shop St for just a little while before he is marched off to the nearest Garda station.

A new opinion poll shows fights for several seats in the European elections.