Several high-profile figures who have been prominent features of Irish political life in recent years have lost their seats in the General Election.
Outgoing Fine Gael Minister Regina Doherty lost her seat in Meath East after the sixth count this evening.
She finished fifth place with just over 5,100 votes after Darren O'Rourke of Sinn Féin topped the poll.
Former Tánaiste and Labour Party leader Joan Burton lost her seat in Dublin West.
She had received 4.8% of first preference votes and was eliminated after the fifth count.
Former Barnardos CEO and Labour Party member Fergus Finlay said Ms Burton had been the victim of “the single most vicious social media campaign I have ever seen since the invention of social media.”
Speaking to Newstalk, he said: “It is incredibly misogynistic, it is hate-filled and it is full of vicious foul language about someone who has worked for years and year to represent people."
He said he is saddened by the decline of the Labour Party and said he is not sure there is any way back for the party.
In the same constituency, Ruth Coppinger of Solidarity - People Before Profit was excluded after the sixth count.
All four seats in Dublin West have now been filled, with Paul Donnelly of Sinn Féin, Fine Gael leader Leo Varadkar, Jack Chamber of Fianna Fáil and the Green Party's Roderic O'Gormon all elected.
In Dun Laoghaire, there was disappointment for the outgoing Minister of State for Higher Education Mary Mitchell O’Connor.
A hug from Fine Gael’s Mary Mitchell O’Connor after she lost her seat to Fianna Fail’s Cormac Devlin in #DunLaoghaire #GE2020 pic.twitter.com/ZENMq2TtEB
— Stephen Murphy (@StephenMNews) February 9, 2020
Her running-mate and first-time candidate Jennifer Carol MacNeill has been elected alongside Fianna Fáil’s Cormac Devlin.
Earlier, the outgoing Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport Shane Ross lost his seat in Dublin Rathdown.
He was excluded on the fifth count in the constituency after Green Party deputy leader Catherine Martin topped the poll.
Speaking on Newstalk, he said that there is now a good chance that the there will be no representatives of the Independent Alliance in the next Dáil.
