Votes are still being counted but it is already clear Catherine Connolly has won the presidency by a huge margin.

Connolly’s victory will be confirmed at Dublin Castle this afternoon. Hugh Linehan, Jack Horgan-Jones and Ellen Coyne are there and sat down to discuss the emerging results and what they mean.

How did Connolly get her campaign so right and Fine Gael theirs so wrong? What does the unprecedented level of spoiled votes really signify? And how will the Government parties interpret and respond to this loss?