State of the parties

With more than half the seats filled in the 43 constituencies in the General Election, Ireland's political scene has undergone a sea change.

Fine Gael is the largest party for the first time in its history and destined for coalition with Labour or heading a government propped up by Independents.

After midnight and with some counts continuing into the early hours, 94 of the 165 seats have been filled and the state of the parties was as follows:

Fine Gael: 41

Labour: 24

Independents: 9

Fianna Fáil: 8

Sinn Fein: 10

United Left Alliance: 2