Overview
- Polling opened on Friday with stations scheduled from 7am to 10pm and voters required to bring valid photo ID to cast a ballot.
- The registered electorate in Dublin Central has fallen by almost 6,000 after an electoral register cleanup, while Galway West’s roll is slightly smaller than at the 2024 general election.
- Fourteen candidates are contesting Dublin Central and seventeen are standing in Galway West, including high-profile party nominees and notable independents whose transfer votes could be decisive.
- Ballot boxes from island polling places will be ferried to Salthill for the Galway count and Dublin boxes will go to the RDS, and hand counting is expected to produce a Dublin result earlier with Galway’s five-seat count likely to run into Sunday or beyond.
- Because Ireland uses the single-transferable-vote system, lower turnout and complex vote transfers make these contests better read as snapshots of public mood on housing and cost of living than as drivers of parliamentary power, and party leaders will watch transfer patterns closely for what they reveal about wider support.