Main PointsDaniel Ennis of the Social Democrats is the new TD for Dublin Central after winning the byelectionSinn Féin’s Janice Boylan finishes in second place after the elimination of the Green Party’s Janet Horner Fianna Fáil records one of its worst election performances in history after candidate John Stephens was eliminated on the second count with 4.22 per cent of the voteSinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald insisted her position is not up for debateClick for live coverage of the Galway West byelection countKey PiecesDublin Central byelection results in fullPat Leahy: Social Democrats set for comfortable win, leaving Sinn Féin with hard questionsInside Politics podcast: Ennis and Kyne in poll position on bad day for big partiesGlen Murphy - 29 minutes agoDaniel Ellis electedSocial Democrats candidate Daniel Ennis has won the Dublin Central byelection, filling the seat vacated by former minister for finance Paschal Donohoe.After almost 16 hours of counting in the RDS, Ennis was elected without reaching the quota on the ninth count with a final vote of 12,050, writes Jack Horgan-Jones.Sinn Féin’s Janice Boylan came second in party leader Mary Lou McDonald’s home constituency, with a final vote of 7,787.The Green Party’s Janet Horner was the third placed candidate with 5,452, having been eliminated after eight counts, while veteran criminal Gerard Hutch came in fourth position, eliminated after the seventh count with a final vote of 4,466. Ennis was first elected for North East Inner City in the local elections of 2024.While the Dublin Central race had been expected to be a close-run thing, early tallies indicated that a strong first preference vote was in the offing for Ennis. Coupled with his expected transfer friendliness, this suggested he would be hard to beat as Sinn Féin endured a difficult day. And this was how it panned out, with Ennis topping the poll and celebrating with family and supporters, alongside his party leader Holly Cairns and other members of the now-enlarged Social Democrats parliamentary party. In a strong showing for anti-establishment candidates, both Hutch and anti-immigration independent councillor Malachy Steenson grew their share of the first preference vote when compared to the general election in 2024.Glen Murphy - 1 hour agoDublin Central enters final countWe are into an endgame in Dublin Central, with the distribution of Independent candidate Gerry Hutch’s vote now having taken place. Janice Boylan took 1,641 votes, with 625 going to Daniel Ennis. Janet Horner received 180 votes, and she has been eliminated. Her total of 5,452 votes will now be distributed in what will be the final count. Non-transferable votes were 2,020.Glen Murphy - 2 hours agoGerry Hutch out after seventh countIndependent candidate Gerard Hutch has been eliminated on the seventh count, ending the day with 4,466 votes. His votes will now be distributed between Daniel Ennis (Social Democrats), Janice Boylan (Sinn Féin) and Janet Horner (Green).Boylan received 196 votes from Ray McAdam’s vote, with 1,172 going to Ennis, and 1,214 to Horner.Glen Murphy - 4 hours agoRay McAdam eliminatedFine Gael’s Ray McAdam has been eliminated on the sixth count.Gerry Hutch leapfrogged McAdam and the Green Party’s Janet Horner to move into third place after the distribution of Malachy Steenson’s surplus. McAdam’s 3,614 votes will be distributed next.Glen Murphy - 4 hours agoAnalysis: Five down, four counts to goAfter five counts in Dublin Central, not much – nothing, in fact – is changing at the top of the leader board.Daniel Ennis of the Social Democrats continues his progress towards the vacant seat.But will veteran criminal Gerry Hutch move up the pecking order? If he’s going to do it, it has to happen on the sixth count, with Malachy Steenson’s preferences now being distributed – this is going to be Hutch’s only big reservoir of transfers. Janet Horner in third has a lead of 1,051 over Hutch, while Ray McAdam in fourth has a lead of 541 votes.Hutch will probably take a big chunk of Steenson’s 2,641 votes. Will it be enough to move him up?Hutch will need a little over 20 per cent of Steenson’s transfers to overtake McAdam, but 40 per cent to overtake Horner. In 2024, Steenson was eliminated on count seven, with 2,195 votes at the time. Hutch claimed a hefty 1,262 transfers, or over 57 per cent of the available vote. So if the strength of that transfer pattern remains, Hutch will overtake both McAdam and Horner to move into third. However, our poll taken during the campaign suggests that relationship may have weakened a little – with just 29 per cent of Steenson voters saying they would send their second preference to Hutch. If the figure is more like that, he’ll probably clear McAdam but be stranded in fourth. If it shakes out like that, McAdam would be next to be eliminated, and his transfers would almost certainly favour Horner, meaning she would stay in third ahead of Hutch, who would be next out.Then we’d be into an endgame with three left in the race – there is basically no chance Hutch’s transfers will do enough to bring Boylan back into contention, but if we see them, it’ll be interesting to see how many votes he sends to Sinn Féin. Our poll suggested around a quarter of his voters intended to transfer to Boylan.Glen Murphy - 4 hours agoMessage from the EditorThanks for reading. If you’re interested in Irish politics, becoming an Irish Times subscriber can give you access to all of our coverage, including exclusive news stories, in-depth analysis and thought-provoking commentary. Receive our politics newsletter in your inbox every morning, early tickets to Inside Politics podcast live events and full access to the best writing about the people and policies that shape modern Ireland.At The Irish Times, our journalism is free of any personal, political or commercial control. Unlike most publishers, we have no shareholders to satisfy, no media baron owner in the background telling us what we can and cannot publish.We are owned by a Trust that mandates us to uphold a set of public-interest values. Those values describe a worldview that is outward-looking, tolerant, curious, interested in divergent views and attentive to the needs of minorities. Our watchwords are fairness and accuracy. Our goal is to enable you to make informed and independent judgments. And any profit we make goes towards supporting our journalism. Ruadhán Mac CormaicEditor [ To join Ireland's biggest community of news subscribers, sign up hereOpens in new window ]Glen Murphy - 5 hours agoSocial Democrats candidate Cllr Daniel Ennis is solidifying his lead following a whopping 871 transfers from People Before Profit’s Eoghan Ó Ceannbháin.He is now 1,366 votes clear of second placed Sinn Féin’s Janice Boylan who 430 transfers from PBP.Glen Murphy - 5 hours agoIndependent candidate Cllr Malachy Steenson has been eliminated on the fifth count in Dublin Central with 2,641 votes.Glen Murphy - 5 hours agoMore than half of the candidates now eliminated More than half of the candidates for Dublin Central have now been eliminated from the running.Ó Ceannabháin amassed 1,853 votes before been ruled out, 761 votes behind Malachy Steenson.Steenson enters the fifth count on 2,614.Ennis’s lead at the top looks increasingly secure as the counting goes on.There are now little more than 900 votes between the Social Democrat (5,512) and Sinn Féin’s Janice Boylan (4,587).Remember, the quota to be deemed elected in the constituency stands at 12,435. Glen Murphy - 5 hours agoPeople Before Profit-Solidarity candidate Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin has been eliminated on the fourth count in Dublin Central. Glen Murphy - 5 hours agoDublin Central turnout level unsurprising, says electoral chiefThe turnout in the Dublin Central byelection at 39.34 per cent is typical of those “when there’s no change of government at stake”, according to chief executive of An Coimisiún Toghcháin, Art O’Leary.“This is simply to pick somebody to represent you in the constituency. So we’re not surprised by the turnout, but obviously we’re always hopeful that it would be larger.”The boss of the independent Electoral Commission said however the turnout is much more accurate than the turnout in the general election “because of the big cleanup that’s being done on the register”.“It’s probably 5 or 6 per cent more accurate,” he said. Some 7,000 voters have deleted since the November 2024 general election and 900 voters added as part of efforts to get people to register to vote, and to create a more accurate register of voters.These are “good numbers” he says but “whether they come out to vote is an entirely different matter”.“It is really easy to register,” he said. “It takes less than three minutes,” but voting is more difficult but in order to get to vote, it’s a little bit harder, you have to go to a particular polling station on a particular day in between particular hours and if you’re away or if you have work commitments or caring responsibilities, some people find that difficult.” The commission has just started “a big research project on advanced voting and postal voting to see if we can make it a little bit easier for those people who want to vote but can’t”. Glen Murphy - 6 hours agoSinn Féin ran ‘very positive campaign’, says BoylanJanice Boylan, Sinn Féin’s candidate, said it had run a “very positive campaign”.She said she was “very, very happy with how it went”, Jack Horgan-Jones reports.Asked if the party would pursue a two-candidate strategy in the next general election, Boylan said “absolutely, we’ll be going out for that again”. Sinn Féin candidate Janice Boylan (left) and party leader Mary Lou McDonald at the Dublin Central byelection count centre in the RDS on Saturday. Photograph: Alan Betson Glen Murphy - 6 hours agoMcDonald insists leadership position not up for debate Video: Enda O'Dowd Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has insisted her position is not up for debate despite looking set to come up short in the Dublin Central byelection. Jack Horgan-Jones writes: The party’s share of the first preference vote dipped significantly in McDonald’s own constituency as its candidate Janice Boylan finished behind poll-topper Daniel Ennis. Despite this, McDonald claimed the party was in growth mode and that a different story would be told in the next general election. She also sought to dismiss any questions over her own leadership, saying it was a “settled matter”.“There’s only one way to become the leader of Sinn Féin – and that’s at our annual ardfheis. There isn’t an alternative route for us, that’s how we decide our leader and that decision was taken three weeks ago at our ardfheis“I am the leader of Sinn Féin – I will lead on, and the job of leader is that you are there on the good days and the bad, you are there when things go very much your way and you are there also when things get tight.”She said the party was “building”.“We are building. I’ve run in countless elections in Dublin Central and I have experienced myself the growth, the big surge in 2020 which was absolutely exceptional, unprecedented, and by the way unpredicted by everyone.”McDonald dismissed suggestions that the party’s peak was behind it: “No absolutely not, we are scaling that mountain, that peak which is a change of government – don’t make that mistake, that would be a mistake on your part.”McDonald argued that the growth in support for anti-establishment candidates Gerry Hutch and Malachy Steenson did not mean more for Sinn Féin than it did for any other party. “It means the same for us as it does for anybody else. It tells us very clearly we enjoy very great support and it tells us we have the basis to build on. I’m focused on our project and our task.”Glen Murphy - 6 hours agoStrong transfer between Government partiesThere was a strong transfer between the Government parties with Fine Gael’s Ray McAdams securing 553 votes following the exclusion of Fianna Fáil’s John Stephens.Marie O’Halloran reports from the RDS: This puts McAdams him on 3,277 votes and he overtakes Green Party councillor Cllr Janet Horner who received 94 transfers and is now on 3,052 votes.Social Democrats Cllr councillor Daniel Ennis got the second highest number of transfers from Fianna Fáil with 95 votes. This puts him 565 votes ahead (5,049) of second placed Sinn Féin candidate Janice Boylan (4,484) who got 68 votes from Fianna Fáil. Independent Gerard Hutch follows on 2,907 with 35 transfers. Independent Malachy Steenson secured 54 votes bringing him to 2,596 votesPeople Before Profit candidate Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin received 25 additional votes and is on 1,744 but may possibly be eliminated at the next count.The Labour candidate got 87 transfers but remained in eighth place and was eliminated.Glen Murphy - 6 hours agoTánaiste praises Fine Gael candidatesFine Gael fielded two grounded and experienced candidates in the Dublin Central and Galway West byelections, Tánaiste Simon Harris has said.The party leader described both Ray McAdam in Dublin and Seán Kyne in Galway as “excellent candidates” who were “grounded in their communities and whose experienced mattered to voters”. The Tánaiste’s statement comes as Kyne remains in the running for taking the seat left vacant in Galway West by Catherine Connolly after she was elected President.Tallies earlier on Saturday showed him trailing very closely behind Independent Ireland’s Noel Thomas but a first count has yet to be concluded in Salthill.The party’s Dublin Central contender, and the capital’s Lord Mayor, Ray McAdam, is currently in fifth place after the second count concluded in the RDS.McAdam is trailing well behind front-runner, Social Democrat councillor Daniel Ennis. Glen Murphy - 6 hours agoLabour’s Ruth O’Dea has been eliminated on the third count.Glen Murphy - 6 hours agoTánaiste praises Fine Gael candidatesFine Gael fielded two grounded and experienced candidates in the Dublin Central and Galway West byelections, Tánaiste Simon Harris has said.The party leader described both Ray McAdam in Dublin and Seán Kyne in Galway as “excellent candidates” who were “grounded in their communities and whose experienced mattered to voters“.The Tánaiste’s statement comes as Kyne remains in the running for taking the seat left vacant in Galway West by Catherine Connolly after she was elected President.Tallies earlier on Saturday showed him trailing very closely behind Independent Ireland’s Noel Thomas but a first count has yet to be concluded in Salthill.The party’s Dublin Central contender, and the capital’s Lord Mayor, Ray McAdam, is currently in fifth place after the second count concluded in the RDS.McAdam is trailing well behind front-runner, Social Democrat councillor Daniel Ennis.Glen Murphy - 7 hours agoFianna Fáil candidate Cllr John Stephens was running in ninth position after the first count, when the Aontú candidate and four Independents were eliminated.Marie O’Halloran writes: Independent Malachy Steenson received the largest number of transfers with 200, followed by Stephens with 71. Lagging far behind the leading candidates his exclusion was inevitable, but came at a very early stage in the counting.Glen Murphy - 7 hours agoFianna Fáil candidate John Stephens has been eliminated on the second count in the RDS with 1,120 votes.Glen Murphy - 7 hours agoOf the now eliminated bottom five from the first count, just one candidate, independent John O’Leary, scored in the single digits. He received seven first preference votes.Glen Murphy - 7 hours agoFive candidates eliminated so farNo candidate reached the quota of 12,435 on the first count.After McAdam, the next highest polling candidate was anti-immigrant independent councillor Malachy Steenson on 2,342 votes, a much stronger result than his last campaign at the 2024 general election.Next up is People Before Profit-Solidarity’s Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin on 1,681, Labour’s Ruth O’Dea on 1,454 and Fianna Fáil’s John Stephens on 1,049. All other candidates received fewer than 1,000 votes.Independents Mannix Flynn, Tony Corrigan, Colm Joseph Flood and John O’Leary, as well as Aontú Ian Noel Smyth were eliminated on the first count.Glen Murphy - 7 hours agoEnnis tops first count in Dublin CentralSocial Democrat candidate Daniel Ennis has topped the poll on the first count in Dublin Central. Ennis took 4,903 first preference votes, followed by Sinn Féin’s Janice Boylan on 4,348. Green candidate Janet Horner secured 2,907 votes, followed closely by independent Gerry Hutch on 2,817.Fine Gael’s Ray McAdam secured 2,659.Dublin Central full results here.Glen Murphy - 7 hours agoDublin Central: As it standsDaniel Ennis with his fiance Chloe (both centre) in the RDS on Saturday. Photograph: Alan Betson