An exit poll in the Republic of Ireland Ireland showed Sinn Féin with 21.1% of the first preference vote and Fine Gael with 21%, making the general election result very close to call.
The poll shows Fianna Fáil has 19.5% of first preference votes.
The results were published at 22:00 local time.
The poll, conducted by Ipsos B&A for RTÉ, The Irish Times, TG4 and Trinity College Dublin, has a margin of error of 1.4%.
The survey shows the Green Party’s first preference support at 4%. Labor at 5%; Social Democrats 5.8 percent; People before profit solidarity at 3.1%; and Independent 12.7%, Independent Ireland 2.2% with Others 1.9%.
The poll is based on 5,018 completed interviews conducted shortly after people cast their votes at polling stations in 43 constituencies in the Republic of Ireland.
In the 2020 Irish general election, Sinn Féin received 24.53% of the first preference vote, while Fianna Fáil received 22.18% and Fine Gael 20.86%.
The poll results set the stage for the official counting of votes, which begins at 09:00 local time on Saturday and is expected to continue through the weekend.
Some of the 43 constituencies may not get final results by early next week.
Successful candidates are known as Teachtaí Dála (TDs) and have 174 seats to fill, but are automatically returned to the Ceann Comhairle (Speaker).
More than 680 candidates contested for the remaining 173 seats.
The number of seats required for an overall majority is 88, but no party is fielding enough candidates to win a majority on its own.
The first session of the New Deal (the lower house of parliament) will be held on December 18, but coalition talks are unlikely to be concluded by then.
There will be Coverage of the election results on BBC Two Saturday at 18:00 GMT and Sunday Politics on BBC One NI at 10:00 GMT.
BBC News NI The website will run a live page with the latest updates over the weekend.