With a brand-new 3-seater constituency comes a brand-new TD in Dublin Fingal East, in a race that for the most part, was too close to call, writes Barry Gallagher.

But for outgoing Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien, it was business as usual as he once again retained his seat, topping the poll with 23.5% of the first preference vote, and eventually reaching the 9,475-quota on the 7th count.

Despite housing and homeless being among the top concerns of the Irish public ahead of Election Day, this was to be expected, along with the success of his two fellow incumbent TDs, Alan Farrell of Fine Gael and Duncan Smith of Labour, who were all pipped to be safely returned.

But Mr Farrell, the Fine Gael Party whip, was pipped by Sinn Féin's Alice Graves, a twist very few forecasters saw coming.

Ms Graves lost her Fingal County Council seat in June's local election only to later be co-opted back on after a party colleague stood down for health reasons, and was expected to face an uphill battle as Fingal East went to the polls.

But as she stood neck and neck with Mr Farrell and Mr Smith throughout each count, it was clear there was going to be a dogfight in the Show Centre for seats two and three.

However, coming up to count 9 of 11, and despite being just 10 votes behind his Sinn Féin counterpart, Mr Farrell knew his pathway to re-election was tightening, and as predicted by the man himself, transfers from here on in did not go his way.

Dean Mulligan, who missed out on a 5th seat to Duncan Smith by just under 200 votes at the old Fingal constituency in 2020, was expected to compete for seat three ahead of the count.

But he never quite got in the mix, and was eliminated in count 9.

The Independents 4 Change Councillor's transfers gave strong bumps to his fellow Swords and left-leaning candidates, Smith and Graves, leaving Farrell struggling to keep pace.

Another candidate who picked up strong support from Mulligan's transfers was Social Democrat candidate Joan Hopkins, who over the weekend remained firmly in 5th place on the polls with 10.7% of the first preference vote.

The North Dublin native, who topped the local polls in Howth-Malahide and actually lost much of her voting base in the Generals to Dublin Bay North, took a significant chunk out of Fine Gael candidate Farrel's support in his local area.

And after being eliminated on count 10, Hopkins' transfers gave Smith and Graves the final push to secure seats two and three on count 11.