More than 700 of the 949 seats on the State’s county and city councils have been filled, with Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil battling it out to be the largest party in local government.
As of 11.50pm on Sunday, Fine Gael had won 199 seats off a first preference vote share of 22.8 per cent, ahead of Fianna Fáil’s 178 seats off a 23 per cent share. Independents and others had taken 177 seats off more than 28 per cent of the vote.
In the European elections, no candidate reached the quota on the first count in the Dublin constituency but Fianna Fáil’s Barry Andrews and Fine Gael’s Regina Doherty are on course to be elected. There will be a close contest for the third and fourth seats with Sinn Féin’s Lynn Boylan and reelection hopefuls Clare Daly and Ciaran Cuffe among those in the mix.
The five-seat Ireland South and Midlands-North-West constituencies have not yet announced a first count result.
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Following a solid performance for Fine Gael in the local elections, Taoiseach Simon Harris said his position on when the general election should be held “hasn’t changed”. He previously said he wanted the Coalition to see out its term, which would mean no election until early next year.
Fianna Fáil leader and Tánaiste Micheál Martin expressed a similar view when asked about the general election date possibly moving forward due to the Coalition parties holding the own in these votes. He said he was keen to deliver a budget in the autumn and for the administration to run its term.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald admitted her party has had a “disappointing” weekend. It had won 70 council seats as of Sunday night and claimed less than 12 per cent of the first preference vote, well shy of its standing in the opinion polls.
“We have made some gains. They are modest, but they’re there. It hasn’t been our day. Clearly frustrations and indeed anger with Government policy, on this occasion, has translated into votes for Independents and others,” she told reporters as she arrived at the RDS in Dublin for the European election count at lunchtime.
“We will regroup. I am sorry we didn’t do better, I know that we can do better and I am determined that we will do better.”
Sinn Féin’s share of the vote is slightly ahead of its 2019 local election performance, when it lost a significant number of seats, but remains well below the 2020 general election performance of 24.5 per cent.
Arriving at the count centre for the Dublin seat in the European Parliament at the RDS, Green Party leader Eamon Ryan said it had been a “mixed day” for his candidates, but it was too early to say whether Mr Cuffe would retain his European Parliament seat in Dublin or Grace O’Sullivan would retain hers in Ireland South.
On the continent, while far-right parties have made significant gains in several European countries, the current governing majority of the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP), centre-left Socialists and Democrats (S&D) and centrist Renew will remain intact.
In Midlands-North-West European Constituency, Independent MEP Luke “Ming” Flanagan said he was happy with tallies so far. “We’ll see what happens, but if someone said to me three or four weeks ago that the tallies were saying what they were saying, I’d be happy at this stage,” he told reporters at the count centre.
Sinn Féin would “struggle” to secure a seat in the constituency, he said, “which is extraordinary. When you look at some of the opinion polls from just over a year ago.”
In Ireland South, Fine Gael’s Seán Kelly and Fianna Fáil’s Billy Kelleher look to be on course to hold their seats. Sitting TDs Michael McNamara (Independent) and Kathleen Funchion (Sinn Féin) are thought to be in contention for the third and fourth seats while incumbents Mick Wallace (Independents4Change) and Grace O’Sullivan (Green Party) are in with a shot of the final seat.
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