Fianna Fáil's John Curran was the first TD to be returned in the State, being declared elected at 2.04pm.
It was not until the sixth and final count that the other three seats in the constituency were filled by Paul Gogarty of the Green Party, Minister for Health Mary Harney of the PDs, and the Labour Party's Joanna Tuffy.
With 6,672 votes, Tuffy was elected without reaching the quota. She edged out Fine Gael's Frances Fitzgerald, who polled 5,664 votes.
The constituency was increased from a three-seater to a four-seater in this election.
Gogarty said he was "mightily relieved" to be re-elected, but sharply criticised his party's strategy during the election.
"I suppose I should take collective responsibility for [it], though I must say I disagreed with it. We had an opportunity to get rid of this presidential-style farce, but unfortunately we didn't grab it by the horns," he said.
"It turned into a two-horse race - which was the better of two tweedle-dum tweedle-dee candidates? . . . The reality is we should have been shouting it from the rooftops, when we had the media opportunity, that Enda Kenny was no different to Bertie Ahern. They both take corporate donations. The reason there's no schools, there's gridlock in the country, is because of bad planning decisions made by representatives from both these parties."
It was a disappointing day for Sinn Féin's Joanne Spain, who had held some hope of making a breakthrough. Though she consistently gained a high proportion of transfers, particularly from Independents, she was eliminated on the fourth count with 4,138 votes.
Overall change: Labour gain
Outgoing TDs
John Curran FF
Mary Harney PD
Paul Gogarty GP
