The marathon count at the Wicklow constituency finally ended last night with outgoing Independent TD Ms Mildred Fox holding on to her seat.
A recheck and recounting of votes showed that Ms has retained the last of five seats in the constituency, beating off a strong challenge from the Labour Party's Mr Nicky Kelly to hang on by just 19 votes.
The declaration left the parties' position in the new Dail at Fianna Fail 81, Fine Gael 31, Labour 21, Progressive Democrats 8, Greens 6, Sinn Fein 5, Independents 14.
Talks aimed at the formation of a new coalition government between the Taoiseach and the Progressive Democrats will begin on a formal basis early next week.
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