Counting in the Seanad elections continues today in Leinster House.
A total of 149 candidates are vying to win 49 available Seanad seats. The country's 1,082 county councillors, TDs and senators make up the electorate for the five vocational panels which are being filled this week.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern also personally nominates 11 Senators.
With several Opposition voting pacts in operation, Fianna Fáil is hoping to hold onto its majority in the 60-seat Upper House.
Ballot boxes for National University of Ireland voters closed at 11am today. Counts for the two university constituencies began this morning with votes to elect three Trinity College senators being counted at the college and the NUI count taking place at the Royal College of Surgeons on St Stephen's Green.
Alex White of the Labour Party yesterday became the first candidate to be elected when he topped the poll in the Cultural and Education Panel with 161 votes. He was elected as a result of a voting pact between his party and Sinn Féin.
Mr White won the first seat on the seventh count, while Fine Gael's Dr Liam Twomey, who lost his Wexford Dáil seat, was elected second on the five-seat panel.
Fianna Fáil, buoyed by support from the PDs and the Green Party as part of its Seanad strategy, held its three seats on this panel, with a change of personnel.
Cecilia Keaveney, who lost her Donegal North East Dáil seat, was elected at the expense of long-serving party colleague Senator Paschal Mooney, while Senators Ann Ormonde and Labhrás Ó Murchú held their seats.
The Labour-Sinn Féin alliance paid further dividends for the two parties when Sinn Féin's Pearse Doherty topped the poll in the Agriculture panel, with Labour's Alan Kelly coming second.