TAOISEACH SIMON HARRIS has said that he is “cautiously optimistic” about incoming general election results, as he said there was no surge in support for Sinn Féin.

Speaking to reporters in Wicklow, where he was re-elected tonight, the Fine Gael leader said there has not “been a Sinn Fein surge or anything like it”.

“I think that’s what we’ve seen, a very close and very competitive election,” Harris added.

Harris picked up close to 30% of first preference votes, easily surpassing the quota with 16,869 votes in the first count.

Exit polls had both Sinn Féin and Fine Gael almost tied for first preference votes, with Harris remaining optimistic about results.

He said that in 26 of the 43 constituencies, Fine Gael did not have a sitting TD on the ballot, but was still seeing gains.

However, he said it was still too “hard to call” who will come out of the election as the largest party.

“I mean, it looks likely, on the figures that we’ve seen now, fewer people, many fewer people would have voted Sinn Fein in this election than the last one,” Harris said.

“In fact, I think they’re down by around 5% and actually the parties, particularly the two parties, the two larger parties in government, are likely to receive significant support from the electorate. So definitely, politics in Ireland has gotten much more fragmented.”

Harris told reporters that it was too early to comment on coalition negotiations, but said he hopes that Fine Gael will play an important and “possibly a leadership” role in the next government.

He added that it transfers made it difficult to predict how the coming hours would go.

“I think anybody who makes any suggestion about who is going to be the largest party or the construct of the next government, they’re a braver person than I am,” Harris said.

“Our electoral system dictates that there’ll be many, many transfers that will go on for hours, if not days, before we know the final computations at all.

Asked about the possible election of  Gerry ‘the Monk’ Hutch in Dublin Central, Harris said the choice was entirely a matter for the local constituency.

“But I remain to be convinced that he will be a TD. I think there’s a long way to go in relation to that and as I talk to people on the ground at Dublin Central, and as I read the news, I don’t think he’s nailed-on yet at all.”

With additional reporting from PA.