Live: Local and European election results – Taoiseach says voters didn’t ‘buy what Sinn Féin were selling’ | BreakingNews.ie

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• Counting began again this morning at 9am, with the focus today on the European election ballots. Follow the European results here
• In the Dublin constituency, tallies indicate Fianna Fáil’s Barry Andrews and Fine Gael’s Regina Doherty are leading the way
• In Midlands–North-West, the limited tallies suggest sitting MEPs Luke Ming Flanagan and Maria Walsh are doing well
• In Ireland South, early indications are Billy Kelleher and Michael McNamara are performing strongly
• In the local elections, Fine Gael is poised to be the biggest party in local government, with Independents making gains
• More than a third of seats have been filled in the local elections so far

Local Election results – State of the parties

5.15pm

Taoiseach Simon Harris visited the count centre in Dublin this evening and spoke to the media about the election results.

He said the public had made clear who they want to be in local government, adding that Fine Gael had received the backing of communities.

Mr Harris said the Irish public didn’t want to “buy what Sinn Féin were selling”.

“It’s for Sinn Féin to speak for themselves, it’s for Sinn Féin to carry out all of the reviews that they wish to do,” the Fine Gael leader added. “I think there’s just two things that I took from the leader of the opposition’s [Mary Lou McDonald] comments today.

“Firstly, that the penny has now dropped, that if you want to lead government you have to have solutions and policies. I thought that was quite interesting, that the leader of Sinn Féin said ‘maybe we need to develop a new policies and be a bit clearer on what the policy solutions are’.

“Six years as leader of her party, two local elections she has led her party through. I welcome the fact that there’s a realisation that politics isn’t just about highlighting challenges but is about coming up with solutions. The second thing I think though, which was rather unedifying today, and quite insulting to the Irish people, is to try and second guess them.

“I was very disappointed to hear her comments in relation to, ‘maybe the people on this occasion didn’t really understand this’. The people of this country are sovereign.

“As I travelled around the country, I think the people knew exactly what Sinn Féin were selling, and they just didn’t want to buy it.”

The Taoiseach also said he had not changed his mind about calling a general election.

Mr Harris previously made clear he would like to see the Government run its full term into next year.

4.50pm

Twelve candidates have so far been elected to Wexford County Council.

Four seats have gone to Fianna Fáil, two to Fine Gael, four to Independent candidates, and one each to Aontú and the Labour Party.

Independent councillor Leonard Kelly has been re-elected, and said voters are less concerned with party politics when it comes to local elections.

“What people appreciate is someone who’s on the ground, who’s getting work done for them, who is approachable, and who is someone they can relate to,” he told Newstalk.

For the latest details on the votes in Wexford, visit our dedicated results page.

4.20pm

It is now almost certain that the first count in the Ireland South constituency won’t be confirmed until Monday.

Around 250 staff began sorting almost 715,000 ballot papers for the 10-county constituency at Nemo Rangers GAA Club in Cork this morning.

Twenty-three candidates are fighting for five seats in the European Parliament and no official tallies are being taken at the count centre.

Returning officer Martin Harvey said staff would be working until 11pm tonight, but the first count will likely be announced on Monday morning.

As the ballot papers are quite long, an initial sorting through took place this morning to put the papers with a vote on the top half in one pile and ballots with a vote on the bottom half in another.

There have been very few ballots with numbered preferences all the way down, with many voters numbering their preferences up to 5 at the most.

One ballot paper seen gave Billy Kelleher a ’20’ with no other preferences, while another ballot had a Star of David drawn in the middle.

4.05pm

Baby Pereppadan of Fine Gael has been elected to South Dublin County Council after the fifth count in the Tallaght South LEA.

3.30pm

More from the Midlands–North-West European constituency amid growing speculation that it could go to a recount.

The Mayo TD for Fine Gael Michael Ring said he was “very hopeful” the party could secure two seats.

Asked about anecdotal evidence that transfers were not always staying within Fine Gael, Mr Ring said there was no question that some voters were “thinking local”.

Mr Ring also criticised the length of the ballot paper.

“It was like a toilet roll, so it was. It was a disgrace.

“Democracy is democracy, but by God – one man said to me he’d need help to lift it. It was crazy.”

3.05pm

The Minister for Housing has said Sinn Féin will not be satisfied with its electoral performance.

Darragh O’Brien told RTÉ radio that “this was a party that was apparently just going to waltz into Government”.

“It’s obviously clear that we’ve parts of the country where they’re in single digits, Dublin probably at 11 [or] 12 per cent. They can’t be satisfied with that performance,” he said.

“Of course, they’ll make gains because they’re coming from a very low base of about 9 per cent.

“I don’t think the main opposition party can be satisfied with a gain like that.”

Read more: Sinn Féin will not be satisfied with electoral performance

2.20pm

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has said “it hasn’t been our day” and she is “sorry that we didn’t do better” after a lacklustre performance for the party in the local elections.

Thanking Sinn Féin’s candidates while speaking at the RDS centre in Dublin, she said “obviously, we are disappointed that we didn’t manage to get more of them elected”.

“We have made some gains, they are modest, but they’re there. It hasn’t been our day. Clearly frustrations – anger indeed – with Government policy on this occasion has translated into votes for independents and others.

Mary Lou McDonald at the RDS in Dublin today. Photo: Damien Storan/PA

“We have to now prepare ourselves for the general election, whenever that will happen. We’ll take time to reflect.

“We’ve literally been on thousands, probably tens of thousands of doorsteps over the last number of weeks. We’ve listened very carefully to people.

“We now need to go and reflect on that, we need to learn from it. We will regroup. I am sorry that we didn’t do better.

“I know that we can do better and I am determined that we will do better.”

12.40pm

The possibility of potential recounts in Midlands–North-West has already been raised by a leading candidate in the constituency.

Luke “Ming” Flanagan said: “There are quite a lot of candidates here who are going to get a significant amount of votes and I think it’s nearly odds on that we’re going to have some sort of a recount – and potentially a recount at the end because I think it’s going to be close.

“So I predict – all I know is we booked a place to stay for the next week in Castlebar.”

12.20pm 

The Finance Minister’s brother and a Tipperary TD’s daughter were among the first batch of councillors elected to local authorities around the country.

With more than 200 candidates elected out of 949, the rough outline indicates Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil holding steady, while Sinn Féin has not made the gains they had hoped for.

One of Fianna Fáil’s candidates in Dublin’s North Inner City area, Caio Benicio, the Brazilian delivery driver who intervened in the Parnell Square attack last November, will not win a seat.

He won just 3 per cent of first preference votes and was one of three Fianna Fáil candidates in the area.

Counting continues at TF Royal Theatre in Castlebar for the Midlands-North-West constituency in the European elections.

11.50am

Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are in a straight shoot out to be the largest party in local government after this weekend, Newstalk political correspondent Seán Defoe reports.

There has been 30 extra council seats filled in the last two hours as counting across the country resumed.

A clear trend is emerging with Fine Gael leading the vote totals on over 24 per cent and Fianna Fál not far behind at over 23 per cent of the vote.

The story has been the collapse of the Sinn Féin vote. While still ahead of its 2019 result, a vote share of 11.4 per cent so far is still far behind where the party has been polling over the last four years.

One in five voters look to have opted for Independents.

The smaller centre-left parties have performed better than expected.

It’ll be a few hours before we have a better sense of the European election results, though each constituency will likely elect a Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Independent candidate. Sinn Féin will take seats, but how many is now a very open question.

10.30am 

The Returning Officer at the Ireland South count centre has said he doesn’t expect the first count to be completed until very late tonight or tomorrow morning.

Two hundred and fifty staff are currently sorting around 715,000 European election ballot papers this morning before the count begins.

Invalid and spoilt papers will be bundled together and reviewed by candidates and count centre staff at around 9pm,. However, it may be later.

9.57am 

Counting is underway in the RDS Simmonscourt for the Dublin European Parliament constituency.

It looks like there will be a fight for one, possibly two seats.

Regina Doherty of Fine Gael and Barry Andrews of Fianna Fáil are expected to take up two seats in Dublin, after partial tallies showed trends of both parties picking up votes across the county.

Niall Boylan is also showing well and will be in the mix for a seat.

After that, Sinn Féin’s local election performance in Dublin will be of huge concern as they ran both Lynn Boylan and Daithi Doolan.

Labour were in an optimistic mood and tallies show good first preferences for Aodhán Ó Ríordáin. Incumbent MEPs Ciarán Cuffe and Clare Daly are in danger of losing their seats.

One to watch though could be Brid Smyth of People Before Profit. Partial tallies looked decent for her and the party itself has had a good local election campaign in Dublin.

All that said, there is no tally being conducted this morning, so the full picture is far from clear.

8.20am

The story of the local elections has been the Government parties doing much better than expected, the Independents polling very well and Sinn Féin having a disappointing run

Today all eyes will be on the European elections with 14 seats up for grabs.

In Dublin, tallies indicate Fianna Fáil’s Barry Andrews and Fine Gael’s Regina Doherty will get the first two seats and Sinn Féin’s Lynn Boylan could get the third.

But it will be a dog fight for the final one with between Niall Boylan, Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, Ciarán Cuffe, Brid Smith and Clare Daly all in the mix.

In Midlands–North-West, the limited tallies suggest sitting MEPs Luke Ming Flanagan and Maria Walsh are doing well – along with Fianna Fáil’s Barry Cowen and former broadcaster Ciaran Mullooly.

While in Ireland South, early indications are Billy Kelleher and Michael McNamara are performing strongly.

Official counting for the mayor elections in Limerick doesn’t begin until Monday, but tallies show John Moran out in a comfortable lead followed by Helen O’Donnell.