Owen loses seat and Greens top poll in Dublin North

The First TDs for the 29th Dail have been elected. The three constituencies that switched to electronic voting had their new Dail Deputies elected in the early hours of this morning. Fianna Fail so far has filled half of the seats.

In Dublin North, the biggest surprise was that veteran Fine Gael TD and former Deputy Leader Nora Owen has lost her seat.

She was shattered by the result: "I'm pretty devastated to be frank with you. I didn't really think that the Fine Gael seat was in such danger in Dublin North and it was, obviously.

"I've lost my seat. I am quite shocked that it is gone. I felt I had a good campaign and got good reaction at the doors. We just obviously didn't get enough votes," she added.

In the end, Green Party Leader Trevor Sargent, Labour’s Sean Ryan, Jim Glennon of Fianna Fail and party colleague G V Wright were elected in Dublin North.

Trevor Sargent says his top place finish was the result of a strong campaign.

"This is the result of enormous work and I have to say that the campaign that the Green party put in in Dublin North really would be a text book campaign."

He said: "It was based on a huge amount of work, a huge amount of preparation, very well organised canvassing and extremely good publications.

"The people who worked behind the scenes as well as on the streets deserve a huge amount of credit and thanks."