Counting in the general election is underway with two exit polls show the outgoing coalition has not been re-elected.

The exit polls for the Irish Times and RTE show that a Fine Gael-Fianna Fáil coalition may the only one with a majority.

The poll conducted for RTE by Behaviour and Attitudes released this morning shows Fine Gael support is at 24.8% - compared to 36.1% in the 2011 general election. 

It puts Labour at 7.1%, compared to 19.5% five years ago.

In the RTE exit poll Fianna Fáil at 21.1% and Sinn Féin at 16%.

The survey was carried out among 4,283 voters in all 40 Dáil constituencies yesterday. 

The remaining parties fared as follows:

Independents 11%

AAA-PBP 4.7%

Social Democrats at 3.7%

Green Party at 3.6%

Independent Alliance at 3%

Renua is at 2.4%

Others at 2.6%.

The Irish Times released its exit poll last night. It found a similar reduction in support for government parties, although Fine Gael did not fare as badly in the newspapers survey carried out by Ipsos MRBI. The state of the parties in the poll were as follows:

Fine Gael 26.1 %

Labour 7.8 per cent

Fianna Fáil 22.9 %

Sinn Féin 14.9 %

AAA-PBP 3.6 %

Greens 3.5 %

Social Democrats 2.8 %

Renua 2.6 %

Independents 16.1 %

The poll was conducted by Ipsos MRBI among 5,260 voters at 200 polling stations throughout all constituencies.

Voters completed a mock ballot paper on exiting the polling station.