Outgoing TD Finian McGrath survived the swing away from Independents to be returned for Dublin North Central, ousting Fianna Fáil's Ivor Callely.
Despite a constituency boundary change which resulted in the former four-seater being reduced to three, McGrath retained his seat to become one of just five Independent TDs in the 30th Dáil, a drop from 14.
He said that at the end of the day it was policies that counted and expensive campaigns did not necessarily win seats.
Fine Gael's deputy leader Richard Bruton, the party's only northside Dublin TD after the 2002 election, comfortably topped the poll and was elected on the first count with 25.5 per cent of the first-preference votes, an increase of 8.5 per cent on 2002.
The Fianna Fáil vote was down 6 percentage points from almost 50 per cent in 2002 when the constituency was a four-seater and the party came close to electing three TDs.
Outgoing Minister of State for Education and Science Seán Haughey was comfortably elected, on the third count, having secured more than 9,000 first preferences.
Paying tribute to his running mate, he said the competition between himself and Callely was "legendary but exaggerated".
The circumstances of Callely's resignation as minister of state had come up on the doorsteps, Haughey confirmed, but he did not know if that affected the outcome.
The combined left-wing vote in Dublin North Central usually makes up a quota, 25 per cent in a three-seater. On this occasion the first preferences totalled 30.43 per cent, with McGrath taking 14.19 per cent.
Callely received 7,003 first preference votes, ahead of McGrath's 5,169. But McGrath secured half of the Sinn Féin transfers and 80 per cent of the combined transfers of Labour's Derek McDowell and the Green's Bronwen Maher to pass the finishing post.
Overall change: Redrawn, FF loss
Outgoing TDs
Seán Haughey FF
Ivor Callely FF
Richard Bruton FG
Finian McGrath Ind
