Overview
- The two by-elections were contested on Friday, May 22, and recorded turnout well below the 2024 general election at about 39% in Dublin Central and 45% in Galway West.
- Counting began at 9am on Saturday, May 23, at the RDS in Dublin and the Galway Lawn Tennis Club in Salthill with rural and island boxes ferried to the main count centres.
- Unofficial first tallies in Dublin Central put Social Democrats’ Daniel Ennis and Sinn Féin’s Janice Boylan top on first preferences and transfers are expected to decide the seat.
- Early counts in Galway West show a very close race with Fine Gael’s Seán Kyne, Independent Ireland’s Noel Thomas and Labour’s Helen Ogbu polling strongly and a longer count likely there.
- Ireland’s PR‑STV voting system, the large candidate fields (14 in Dublin Central, 17 in Galway West) and a recent Dublin register clean‑up that removed roughly 5,000 names mean multiple elimination rounds will be needed and these by-elections are being read as a barometer of public mood rather than a threat to the Government’s overall majority.