Counting of the votes in the European elections will begin today, while the picture of the country’s local government will continue to take shape after a busy first day of counting.
The fate of the political parties and independents will become clear throughout the day as counting in the local elections goes on from this morning.
Just one county has completed voting and elected all of its councillors, and that is Leitrim County Council.
At 5am, the final seat was taken by Sinn Féin candidate Róisín Kenny, elected to the Ballinamore electoral area.
Votes are yet to be counted across the LEAs of Meath County Council and Donegal County Council.
Despite winning 24.5% of first preference votes in a historic result in the 2020 general election, and hovering above 30% in opinion polls for a long time, the fate of many of Sinn Féin’s candidates is expected to depend on transfers.
Despite this, the party is expected to still make some gains on the 2019 election results, where it won around 9% of first preference votes and 81 council seats out of 949.
Sinn Féin TD for Donegal Pearse Doherty told RTE’s Six One programme yesterday that it will make gains in some counties but would have to “dust themselves down” and look at “lessons that can be learned”.
Tánaiste and Fianna Fáil leader Michéal Martin said his party had performed “far better” than predicted.
Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe said the results so far showed Fine Gael was not a spent political force.
“Overall, the portrayal that some have offered of Fine Gael as a tired party – that narrative, that claim, has been shattered by the results that we’re seeing potentially coming through at the moment.
“And the other narrative that there’s anything inevitable about Sinn Féin being in government – that’s been shattered too.”
Finance Minister Michael McGrath said there had been “no massive breakthrough” for the far right in the Irish elections, despite concerns raised during the campaign.
Despite the strong showing for Government parties so far, ministers said that the coalition Government would “go the full distance” to February or March before a general election is called.
Counting in the European Parliament elections begins
Counting in the European elections will begin this morning, and the results of the first tally will not be declared until after 10pm due to ongoing voting in other EU member states.
While the count for the European elections has not officially begun, the segregating of the ballot papers allowed observers to get a sense of which candidates are performing well.
In Dublin, incomplete tallies suggested Fianna Fáil’s Barry Andrews and Fine Gael’s Regina Doherty were leading.
Green Party MEP Ciaran Cuffe, Independent Ireland candidate Niall Boylan, Labour representative Aodhán Ó Ríordáin and Sinn Féin hopefuls Daithí Doolan and Lynn Boylan will be fighting over the remaining two seats.
In the South constituency, Fine Gael MEP Sean Kelly and Fianna Fail MEP Billy Kelleher are considered to be in contention for re-election.
Sinn Féin will be hoping to regain a seat in the region with Kathleen Funchion, while Independent TD Michael McNamara is predicted to take the fourth seat.
In Midlands-North-West, there were reports of strong support for Fine Gael’s incumbent Maria Walsh, and her running mate Nina Carberry.
Fianna Fail’s Barry Cowen, Independent Ireland candidate Ciaran Mullooly and Independent MEP Luke “Ming” Flanagan have also polled well in some regions across the vast constituency.
In the south west, voters in Limerick city and county had the opportunity to directly elect a mayor with executive powers on long-term strategic planning.
Tallies show that Independent candidate John Moran, a former secretary general at the Department of Finance, is in the lead with Independent candidate Helen O’Donnell in second place.
Additional reporting by Carole Coleman.
