Dublin North West

Minister of State for Housing Noel Ahern, who holds the safest seat in the constituency having topped the poll on the last two occasions, was again elected on the first count with 7,913 seats, just clear of the 7,742 quota.

While the Taoiseach's brother headed the poll, the preferences of Dublin North West constituents for all three seats were clear on the first round.

Ahern's running mate and outgoing TD Pat Carey, whose seat was believed to be under threat from Sinn Féin's Dessie Ellis, did exceptionally well on first preferences, with 7,211 votes.

Labour's Róisín Shortall also put in an impressive first-count showing, with 6,286 first-preference votes, giving her a firm basis from which to take a seat.

Both Carey and Shortall were elected on the third count following the elimination of Fine Gael's Dr Bill Tormey, whose transfers pushed Shortall's total to an impressive 9,255 votes.

Her success briefly inspired hope that an alternative to a Fianna Fáil-led government could still be achievable.

"I hope it is still possible to put together an alternative government; we fought this election on the basis of the need for change . . . I'm keeping my fingers crossed," she said.

Shortall said she did not want to see her party go into government with Fianna Fáil. "I'm not really interested in that. We fought the election on the basis of wanting to change the government, to get Fianna Fáil out of government."

Ellis, a Dublin city councillor, had been strongly tipped to take a seat, having received 18 per cent of the first preferences in the 2002 election, ahead of Shortall. But Dublin North West was not going to buck the trend of the mediocre showing nationally for Sinn Féin. This time Ellis fell a good deal short of the quota, with 4,873 first-preference votes.