2024 European and Local Council Elections - major wins for Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, and independents as Sinn Féin underperform

So far, 826 of the 949 Local Elections seats have been filled, in what has been a disappointing election for Sinn Féin, who have secured only 91 of the local election seats declared so far.

Sinn Féin party leader Mary Lou MacDonald said of the results: "Clearly we are disappointed that we didn't get more candidates elected". Ms MacDonald described the gains made by the party on what had been regarded as a disastrous showing in 2019 as "modest".

As the count continues, I wanted you to hear directly from me. pic.twitter.com/sLdIhUrIhF

— Mary Lou McDonald (@MaryLouMcDonald) June 9, 2024

Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael retained a surprising number of seats, with 205 (22.8% of first preference votes) and 215 (23% first preference votes) respectively.

The high retention of seats is seen as an endorsement of Simon Harris' leadership, with some rumouring an early general election will be called for this Autumn.

The Green Party so far has secured 21 seats, Labour 52, Social Democrats 32 and People Before Profit 10 seats.

The biggest winners of the 2024 local elections however, were Independents who did remarkably well in first preference votes with a whopping 28% of first preferences.

Independent candidates – representing a diverse range of local issues – fared less well than major parties in terms of transfers as their 28% share of first preferences has so far translated into 200 seats, less than either Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.

Nonetheless, it's a remarkable trend. However the speculated surge for the far right, has not taken place, although some candidates such as Independents Malachy Steenson of Dublin North Inner City and Gavin Pepper of Ballymun- Finglas have won seats on anti-immigration platforms.

There were also considerable gains from first generation Irish candidates, and people from immigrant backgrounds.

One such example is father son duo Baby Pereppadan and Britto Pereppadan, who both ran for Fine Gael, and were elected in Tallaght South and Tallaght Central respectively.

Tallaght will be well represented by a strong @FineGael team! Well done Baby Pereppadan & Britto Pereppadan. A great result! #LE24 pic.twitter.com/679IRHZxNw

— Colm Brophy (@brophytalks) June 9, 2024

When it comes to the European Elections, is it not clear yet who Ireland's MEPs are going to be.

A tight race in under way in the Dublin Constituency, after Fianna Fáil's Barry Andrews and Fine Gael's Regina Doherty topped the poll in the constituency, though both failed to meet the quota on the first count. The likelihood is that they will be elected, along with Lynn Boylan, with the final seat an old-fashioned dog-fight between the incumbent independent Clare Daly, Green Party MEP Ciaran Cuffe, Aodhán Ó Riordáin of the Labour Party and Bríd Smith – with the candidates' ability to attract transfers certain to prove vital.

In the Midlands-North-West constituency sitting MEPs Luke Ming Flanagan (Ind) and Maria Walsh (FG) have performed well, and are expected to retain their seats.

Ireland South, the largest constituency geographically, is likely to return Fine Gael's Seán Kelly and Fianna Fáil's Billy Kelleher to their MEP seats.

.@oconnellbrian reporting that Seán Kelly may exceed the quota on the Count 1 in Ireland South.
If that's true: we'll be waiting a loooooong time for Count 2.
Kelly will have ~150k votes, but only a small surplus: staff will comb through ALL 150k to find a representative sample.

— Gavan Reilly (@gavreilly) June 10, 2024

Meanwhile, counting is underway for Ireland's first ever directly elected Mayor in Limerick, with former secretary general at the Department of Finance and Independent candidate John Moran in the lead after the first count. But there is some distance to go before anything decisive can be read into the figures.