One of the remarkable things about the outcome of the election was that for most of the parties, the result was uncannily similar to the result five years earlier, writes Stephen Collins, Political Editor
Fianna Fáil and Labour hardly changed at all, either in terms of the percentage share of the vote achieved or the number of seats won.
For the Greens the number of seats was the same although the share of the vote was 1 per cent higher, while for Sinn Féin the share of the vote was marginally up on 2002 but the party lost one seat.
The only two parties that had a very different outcome this time round were Fine Gael and the Progressive Democrats.
The Fine Gael vote was up by five percentage points and the number of seats gained, at 20, was more dramatic again. For the PDs, the trend went in the opposite direction. The party lost about a third of its vote and its number of seats crashed from eight to two.
In terms of the expected outcome, as indicated by most of the polls during the campaign, the performance of Fianna Fáil was remarkable, in that the party vote remained rock solid and it lost just three seats. It was enough to put the party in an unassailable position for Bertie Ahern to form his third government in a row.
When the result is looked at in terms of the two alternative governments on offer, it is far closer than most of the commentary to date has indicated. The Fianna Fáil-PD coalition lost nine seats, by comparison with 2002, and ended up with a total of 80. The Fine Gael, Labour and Green alternative gained 19 seats and ended up with 77. A reversal of those totals would probably have led to a very different outcome in terms of government formation.
The turnout in the election, at 67.3 per cent, was almost 5 per cent up on 2002 but there were still disappointing turnouts in the mid-50 per cent range in some of the most keenly contested constituencies such as Dublin Central and Dublin South East.
The Fianna Fáil share of the vote, at 41.6 per cent, was marginally up by just over a tenth of one percentage point on 2002, but the party came in with three fewer seats. It still represented a remarkable seat bonus of 10 on its performance last time out. The party's performance across most of the country, with the exception of the west, matched that of 2002.
One of the real surprises was how the Fianna Fáil vote held up in Dublin north and south of the Liffey. While vital seats were lost in Dublin North Central and North East by very narrow margins, the rest were held with relative comfort. The party also did extremely well in the commuter belt constituencies of Louth, Meath, Kildare and Wicklow, where it won seats that had not been forecast.
If the election was a huge success for Fianna Fáil it was a disaster for the junior coalition party, the Progressive Democrats. The prophets of doom for the party finally had their day as its national share of the vote shrank to 2.6 per cent and eight of its 10 seats were lost. The most dramatic loss was that of the party leader and Tánaiste, Michael McDowell, whose Dublin South East seat was taken by Fine Gael. It was always going to be the case that a good performance by Fine Gael would leave the PDs struggling but the loss of the party leader was a particularly bitter blow.
For Fine Gael the result was a triumph for Enda Kenny, who brought the party back from the dead in five years, but there was deep disappointment in the failure to achieve power. The party's vote was up five percentage points to 27 per cent and it managed to restore its traditional seat bonus.
The most spectacular gains were made along the western seaboard, in the party leader's own constituency of Mayo, the two Donegal constituencies and Clare with Galway East and Roscommon-Leitrim also coming in with an extra seat. The performance in Donegal - where it was Fine Gael and not Sinn Féin that won two seats - was one of the most stunning upsets of the election.
The problem for Fine Gael was that its coalition ally, Labour, remained becalmed. The party's vote dropped slightly and it lost one seat to end up with 20. It was a deeply disappointing result but there are no easy answers for Labour about what its problem is. Some internal critics of party leader Pat Rabbitte blamed the result on the Fine Gael coalition election strategy, but the opposite strategy, of leaving all its options open, failed equally dismally five years ago.
A minor consolation for Labour is that its rivals on the left fared even worse. The Socialist Party lost its only TD, Joe Higgins, while Sinn Féin dropped from five seats to four. The result was a deep disappointment for Sinn Féin as it had been confident of gaining at least four seats to add to the five it had in the last Dáil.
The Greens held six seats but the party was expected to do better and the loss of one of its most impressive TDs, Dan Boyle in Cork, was a serious blow. However, the deputy leader, Mary White, made the long-awaited breakthrough in Carlow-Kilkenny and the party has been left with the option of negotiating its way into office for the first time.
For Independents the election was a disaster, their numbers cut from 13 in the 2002 election to just five. Two were formerly Fianna Fáil, one formerly Fine Gael and the other two socialists.