Several senior politicians have said a response is needed to the 213,738 spoiled votes in the presidential election.

It represents 13 per cent of all votes cast on Friday, and a more than tenfold increase on the number of spoiled votes in the last presidential election, when there were 18,438 invalid ballots.

The turnout was 46 per cent, up on the 2018 presidential election, which had a turnout of 44 per cent.

The electoral commission has said there “will clearly be a need for deeper and further reflection” about why there were so many spoiled ballots in the presidential election.

Political Correspondent Sean Defoe joined us on The Agenda this morning to tell us more about this.

Aontu leader and Meath-West TD Peadar Toibin also joined us on the line this morning to tell us about why he decided to spoil his vote.

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