It is Saturday afternoon of a busy election weekend and while it is still far too early to draw conclusions about many aspects of the local and European contests, some trends are beginning to emerge.

One of those trends is that Sinn Féin’s recent drop in popularity is being confirmed at the ballot box, the party’s support at these elections lower now than polls suggested six months ago.

Meanwhile the Coalition parties are cautiously optimistic that losses will be less than feared, while independent candidates look set to make gains.

Hugh Linehan is joined by Pat Leahy and Jennifer Bray on the Inside Politics Election Daily podcast to assess what we are learning from tallies and the first results from count centres around the country.

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