The other candidates have already accepted the result and congratulated the veteran politician on winning the race to the Aras.
The first count result was as follows: Higgins 39.6% (701,101), Gallagher 28.5% (504,964); McGuinness 13.7% (243,030); Mitchell 6.4% (113,321); Norris 6.2% (109,469); Scallon 2.9% (51,220); Davis 2.7% (48,657).
Mr Higgins said afterwards: “I want to pay tribute to all the other candidates and I promise to be a President for all of the people.”
Dana and Mary Davis have now been eliminated and their votes are now being re-distributed.
But no-one can catch Higgins who is expected to pick up transfers from all the other parties.
Sean Gallagher still managed to bag more than half a million votes, with evidence of widespread support from the Fianna Fail grassroots.
And Sinn Fein are said to be delighted with a quarter of a million first preference votes.
But it was a poor election result for Fine Gael, with Gay Mitchell finishing the first count in fourth place – 130,000 behind Martin McGuinness, and just slightly ahead of David Norris.
The count will continue into the night.
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