The Government suffered a major blow last night as its candidates failed to take either seat in the byelections in Meath and Kildare North.
Fine Gael's Shane McEntee was elected to the Dail in the Meath constituency following a close-fought contest with the Fianna Fail contender Shane Cassells.
Independent candidate Catherine Murphy earlier won the byelection in Kildare North, beating Fianna Fáil's Áine Brady into second place.
Mr McEntee takes the Dáil seat vacated by the former taoiseach John Bruton, while Ms Murphy takes the Fianna Fáil seat held by the former finance minister Charlie McCreevy.
The Meath announcement came at about 8.15pm at the election count centre in Navan when Mr McEntee was elected with 24,047 votes, just shy of the 24,854 quota. He had received 5,833 votes following the elimination of the Sinn Fein and Labour candidates, which indicates that Labour's transfer pact with Fine Gael was a success.
Mr Cassells received 3,698 transfers following the elimination of Joe Reilly of Sinn Fein and Dominic Hannigan of Labour after the third count, bringing his total vote to 21,178.
Mr McEntee arrived at Simonstown GAA club in Navan, where the count was held, with the party leader Enda Kenny shortly after 8pm to ear-shattering cheers and singing from overjoyed friends and party activists spilling out of the count centre into a freezing Navan night.
The voice of the returning officer, Máire Teahon, was drowned out by the cheers of the Fine Gael crowd as she announced the result.
One Fine Gael supporter wryly remarked that a local newspaper, which ran a poll this week indicating Cassells would win, could 'stick their poll'.
Mr Cassells was placed at just over 36 per cent in the poll, while the prediction for McEntee was just 20.4 per cent of the overall vote.
The results will be a political setback for the Government, which had been widely tipped to win at least one of the two byelections held on Friday. This also means an unbroken run of losses for government parties in byelections since 1982.
The loss of Charlie McCreevy's seat in Kildare North will come as a blow to Fianna Fáil who fielded a strong candidate in Áine Brady. Catherine Murphy, who secured 12,256 votes following five counts, campaigned for community services, better schools, affordable childcare and public transport, and for the removal of tolls from the West-Link bridge.
Shane Cassells was, until the last minute, the Government's great hope to break the byelection curse for parties in government.
The results will also provide a major stimulus to the Opposition parties in the run-up to the next general election, with the likelihood that Labour and Fine Gael will build on their transfer pact in the two byelections.