GERRY ‘THE MONK’ Hutch appears to be in contention for a Dáil seat in Dublin Central.In the first count in the four-seat constituency, he secured 3,098 votes, while Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald topped the poll with 6,

With all boxes now tallied in the Dublin Central constituency, Independent candidate Gerard Hutch looks likely to be in contention for a seat with around 9% of first preference votes.

Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald will top the poll on around 20pc it appears, followed by Fine Gael’s Paschal Donohoe on around 17pc. Gary Gannon of the Social Democrats is polling in third place at 13pc followed by Hutch on 9pc.

People across Ireland went to the polls on Friday to vote in the 2024 General Election. A lot has changed since we last went to the polls nearly five years ago. We have survived a global pandemic, saw Donald Trump re-elected US President and watched as two wars broke out.

Irish voters are heading to the polls on Friday to elect a new Government, with the two centre parties which have run the country for more than a century and been in coalition together for the past 4 years – vying to stay in power.

Counting is underway across the country in the general election, and you can follow live updates here throughout the day