Ireland's main opposition party is on course to narrowly win the most votes at the General Election, but its two main centre-right rivals will likely have enough seats to govern again without it.

The exit poll put Sinn Fein on 21.1 per cent, the centre-right Fine Gael with Prime Minister Simon Harris on 21 per cent and like-minded coalition partner Fianna Fail on 19.5 per cent.

Opinion polls had suggested the three main parties were neck-and-neck ahead of the vote and that Ireland was heading for a broadly similar result to the last election in 2020.

Fine Gael and Fianna Fail pledged ahead of the election to seek to form a coalition without Sinn Fein, just as they did after the 2020 general election when Sinn Fein also narrowly won the popular vote.

Fine Gael and Fianna Fail will likely need the support of at least one other smaller party to reach a majority. They currently govern alongside the Greens.

More to come...