Galway Bay fm newsroom - The first votes are being counted in the Presidential election and blasphemy referendum.
The exit polls suggest Michael D Higgins will comfortably win the election, and that blasphemy will be repealed from the Constitution.
It looks like a landslide victory for President Higgins - with two exit polls putting the current President on course to be re-elected with between 56% and 58% of the vote.
Businessman Peter Casey looks as though he will place second - securing 21% support in a surprise turnaround in the last week of polling.
His comments that Travellers should not be given ethnic status angered many, but clearly appealed to a significant amount of the electorate.
Sinn Féin will have to pore over why their campaign failed.
Sinn Fein's candidate Liadh Ni Riada polled worse than Martin McGuinness in 2011 with the exit poll showing she only secured between 7 and 8 per cent of the vote.
The party has been criticised for being slow to announce their candidate but the party's health spokesperson Louise O'Reilly is blaming the poor turnout.
Sean Gallagher will finish on between 5.5% and 7% according to the exit polls - far short of the half a million votes he got in 2011.
Pieta House founder Senator Joan Freeman will finish with around 6%, while businessman Gavin Duffy conceded overnight and is likely to get just 2% support.
Mr Duffy says he has no regrets about his decision to run for office.
He has tweeted his congratulations to Michael D Higgins, and wished him all the best for his second term.
