On a day of high political drama, Fianna Fail confounded its critics with a sensational electoral performance which opened up the possibility that it could form its own single party government.

Enda Kenny's Opposition Fine Gael party also made considerable gains but it was a bad election for the smaller political parties. Sinn Fein, in particular, failed to make the breakthroughs it expected in constituencies in Dublin and Donegal.

And Deputy Prime Minister Michael McDowell quit politics after losing his seat as his Progressive Democrats party lost a number of high profile candidates.

With many seats still to be decided, Fianna Fail strategists were not ruling out the possibility that they would have to enter into a coalition again.

With the party chasing the magic 83-seat figure for an overall majority, Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern said: "We potentially will be around the 80-seat mark. That might mean we won't have to look at coalition options because we can look at independent.

"I wouldn't say an overall majority is out of the question. It just depends on how some of the last seats fall. As always, we will be cautious in how we call it until the final results."

After one of the roughest campaigns he has fought, Mr Ahern emerged victorious despite being made to issue a public statement about his personal finances.

While Fine Gael regained a host of seats lost in the 2002 General Election, its potential coalition partner Labour had a miserable day.

Labour leader Pat Rabbitte was quick to concede the election to Mr Ahern but Enda Kenny of Fine Gael was still cautious, insisting he still wanted to see the final shakedown of results across the 43 constituencies.