With the marathon vote-counting exercise in the Irish general election concluding, the attention has now turned to the formation of the next government.
Fianna Fáil has emerged as the largest party with 48 TDs, followed by Sinn Féin with 39 and Fine Gael with 38. Other results include 16 Independents, Labour and the Social Democrats with 11 each, and smaller parties and groupings filling the remaining seats.
Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, and Sinn Féin will convene meetings of their parliamentary parties tomorrow to discuss their next steps. Meanwhile, the Social Democrats are holding an online meeting today and have reached out to Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Sinn Féin, and Labour to arrange discussions on the way forward.
Talks between the Social Democrats and Sinn Féin are scheduled for Thursday, with Labour discussions planned for Friday.
A coalition between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, which collectively hold 86 seats, is just two seats short of a majority in the expanded 174-seat Dáil. Following the Electoral Commission’s recent review, a coalition now requires at least 88 TDs to secure a working majority.
To achieve this, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael may need to secure the support of smaller parties or several Independent TDs.
The Dáil is set to reconvene for the first time on December 18. However, it remains uncertain whether a new government can be agreed upon by this deadline, given the complexity of coalition-building in the current political landscape.