Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said the Dublin Bay South byelection result had made it very clear that voters now wanted a general election.
Responding to the result in which the party's candidate Lynn Boylan received 15.8 per cent of first preferences (marginally down on the general election), Ms McDonald also said it demonstrated the party's one seat in the constituency was solid.
“It is now clear that we have a Government living on borrowed time. It is very clear that Government support in the constituency has collapsed,” she said.
“They have been found out. Nowhere more so than in the whole area of housing policy.”
She added: “This was a byelection but it was very clear to us on the campaign trail that what people want now is a general election.”
For her part, Ms Boylan thanked people who came out for her who did not know her as well as the sitting party TD Chris Andrews. "They came out for me in huge numbers," she said.
Ms Boylan was eliminated after the eighth count with 5,237 votes.
Ms McDonald said a lot of people thought the party’s big gains in February 2020 was a “flash in the pan”.
“It was not. Change is happening,” she said.
