FF heavyweights in fight for seats

Fine Gael is on course to lead the next Government but appears to have failed to secure an overall majority.

Labour's to have its best election ever, doing extremely well in Dublin, but Fianna Fáil is on track to lose it's 80 year dominance on Irish politics and may have just one seat in Dublin.

Early tallies suggest Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West), Mary Hanafin and Barry Andrews (both Dun Laoghaire) will have major fights to keep their seats.

Finance Minister Brian Lenihan will go from a poll-topper to scraping for the fourth seat in Dublin West - and he may be the only Fianna Fáil TD in Dublin.

Fine Gael's is on course to secure more than 70 seats - though not enough for an overall majority.

In Enda Kenny's Mayo home the party is securing about two out of every three votes, but across the country the party is sweeping up ballots.

Michael Noonan is set to become the new poll topper in Limerick.

Labour is on course to surpass all previous electoral performances, with their best showing in the capital.

The party is claiming there was a swing back in their favour in the last days of the campaign, and they look set to get between 35 and 40 seats

It's also a good day for Independents - Mick Wallace could top the poll in Wexford, while Shane Ross could do likewise in Dublin South.

The Greens are however not having a good day - Paul Gogarty using twitter quite early to concede with, as he put it "good grace".