Minister for Children, James Reilly, has lost his seat in Dublin Fingal to Sinn Féin's Louise O' Reilly.
Speaking out following the development, Mr. Reilly admitted that the news has come as a blow, saying: "Today is a tough day for a lot of my colleagues."
Mr. Reilly, who was appointed Minister for Children and Youth Affairs following a cabinet reshuffle in July 2014, paid tribute to the Fine Gael and Labour coalition, insisting that they had left the country "in a better place" economically speaking.
Acknowledging the will of the people, Mr. Reilly, a qualified GP, paraphrased Winston Churchill, saying: "Democracy isn’t great but there’s nothing better around. Sometimes we take it for granted but we must protect it."
While speaking to RTE news earlier today, Mr. Reilly looked to the future and asserted that those elected have an arduous journey ahead.
"A difficult job for all those elected now to form a government to keep this country on track and not to lose the ground we've made but rather to spread the recovery to every house in the country and to every person."
Reaction to Mr. Reilly's elimination has been mixed, with members of the public taking to Twitter in their droves to voice their opinions on the results of this year's General Election.
