Michael D Higgins will be confirmed President later this afternoon

Gay Mitchell and Martin McGuinness have been eliminated in the Presidential election count.
It means Michael D Higgins will be confirmed as the ninth President of Ireland later this afternoon.
After the third count Michael D Higgins was still some 90,000 votes shy of the quota.
That then led the Presidential returning office (Rena Ni Lan Alla) to eliminate the two lowest candidates.
This fourth count that’s now ongoing in 43 constituencies will give Michael D Higgins the votes he needs to reach the quota – he only needs about 1 in 4 votes from Gay Mitchell and Martin Mc Guinness.
It’s now expected that sometime around 4 or 5 o ‘clock this afternoon we will have a declaration that Michael D Higgins is President elect ahead of his inauguration on November 11th.
Then it’s the two referendums.
They’re already counted across the country – the results will be fed here to the central count centre and results are expected quickly after the presidential announcement.