Main PointsThe margins between success and failure could be wafer thin, says Pat LeahyCounting began at 9am with results expected by early eveningClick for live coverage of the Galway West byelection count Key ReadsWhat are voters’ five big issues in Dublin Central and Galway West byelections?In the News podcast: Who will win the Dublin Central and Galway West byelections?Polymarket betting on Dublin Central byelection to be examined by officialsOpinion: We finally know how much money shapes Irish electionsAll Irish Times polling coverage and data, including the most pressing issues for voters, can be accessed hereSarah Burns - 35 minutes agoSarah Burns - 54 minutes agoSarah Burns - 1 hour agoVirgin Media’s political correspondent Gavan Reilly has built a spreadsheet that compares the exact boxes from the 2024 general election with those being tallied in the RDS.Why does that matter, you ask?Well, tally data is great - but it suffers from a bit of a geographical bias in real time as we can’t tell to a high degree of certainty which polling centres are feeding into the live tally, so it could be heavily weighted towards areas where a particular candidate is strong or weak. This makes it harder to infer a complete picture until the tally is complete. But if you compare the same boxes today with those from 2024, you can see how a candidate is performing against the relevant indicator from last time out. Our own Political Correspondent Jack Horgan-Jones writes that, as at 9.50am, Gavan’s spreadsheet shows Sinn Féin is struggling to match its 2024 showing, currently running some seven points off the combined Boylan/McDonald vote in 2024, while Daniel Ennis is slightly overperforming Gary Gannon’s totals for the same boxes in the general election. This only tells us first preferences, but we fully expect Ennis to be more transfer-friendly than Boylan. On these numbers, they’ll be tightly bunched at the top, which spells trouble for Sinn Féin. A couple of other talking points:The Hutch vote is growing, but on these numbers, only a little. The growth for Steenson, the anti-immigration councillor, is more pronounced. As it stands, Ray McAdam is down on Paschal Donohoe’s vote - but that’s to be expected. John Stephens (Fianna Fáil) is nowhere. Janet Horner (Green Party) is, as it stands, improving significantly on the 2024 showing. Even by the time you read this, this picture will have changed - but these are interesting straws in the wind.Gavan Reilly tally of Dublin Central. Sarah Burns - 1 hour agoCounting has started in the Dublin Central byelection Sarah Burns - 1 hour agoThe first votes being counted after ballot boxes are opened at the start of counting in the Dublin Central byelection at Dublins RDS.