From RTÉ News:
More than 86% of the seats have been filled as the counting continues across the country in local elections, with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael leading the way.
They remain the dominant parties in local government as both received around 23% of first preference votes.
At 5am, with more than 820 seats filled nationwide, Fine Gael was in the lead with 214 councillors, just ahead of 204 for Fianna Fáil.
Ballina is the only local electoral area not to return a first count as of yet.
Independents have performed well in the election with more than 160 so far.
Sinn Féin has more than 91 councillors returned as they pull well clear of Labour, with 52, to be the third largest party in local government.
Mary Lou McDonald conceded that it has been a disappointing result for Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin is likely to finish with more councillors than in 2019 – but with fewer than the party envisioned at the start of campaigning this time around.
Speaking at the RDS count centre yesterday, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said the party will reflect, learn, and regroup.
A year ago, Sinn Féin seemed unstoppable, but now things are a lot less certain. Is this the ‘Harris Bounce’ in action? There are now calls for Harris to capitalise on the momentum and call an early general election. It is also interesting that the far right swing did not materialise, proving once again that the internet is not real life.
From Sinn Féin failing to fire to Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael battling it out to be top dog. Here are five takeaways from the Local Elections with RTÉ Political Correspondent Paul Cunningham | Read more: https://t.co/4YZaAmfkFQ pic.twitter.com/Ks5DKMDhqe
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) June 9, 2024
I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism, I am not a member of any political party. Oddly for a member of the Slugger team, I am not that interested in daily politics, preferring to write about big ideas in society. When not stuck in front of a screen, I am a parkrun Run Director.
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