Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael lead Irish elections

Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are vying for the lead in the Republic of Ireland's local elections, as counting continues.

More than 800 councillors have been elected, with 949 seats to be filled across 31 local authorities.

Fine Gael is in the lead with 214 councillors; Fianna Fáil has 204.

The current Irish government has been in place since June 2020, when Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party voted to enter a coalition together.

Independents are also faring well in the election results so far.

Counting is also ongoing for the European parliament elections and a mayoral race in Limerick city.

Fianna Fáil MEP Barry Andrews told BBC News NI's Good Morning Ulster that the local election results so far show there is "momentum for the government parties".

"It tells you there is a broad satisfaction with what the government are doing," he said.

"The fact that the centre held strongly is good news, especially when you look at what's happening across the EU where there’s been a massive growth in the far right."

Fine Gael senator Emer Currie added that it was a "good night for the party".

"We’re offering stability, showing how important the centre and centrist politics is. We are investing in communities and people are seeing that.

"There is enough room in the centre for Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael."

Meanwhile, Green Party leader Eamon Ryan told the BBC that the government parties in general have had "a successful campaign".

However he added that the Green Party will lose “a good number of seats" in the local elections compared to its 2019 performance.

“We expected that because 2019 was really a high water mark for environmental politics right across Europe," he said.

"But by holding our own in a lot of constituencies, and with a chance of winning two seats possibly in the European elections, we’re still very strong."

Sinn Féin, the main opposition party, is expected to have more councillors elected to local authorities than at the previous local election, but not as many as it wanted or expected.

Despite an election performance that she admitted "disappointed" her, Mary Lou McDonald has said she has no plans to step down as Sinn Féin party leader.

Ms McDonald has said she will lead a full review into Sinn Féin's performance.

Sinn Fein TD Padraig MacLochlainn emphasised that the party has “gained seats all around the state but not at the level we would have hoped for”.

“The last local elections in 2019 pretty disastrous for Sinn Fein,” he said.

“This election was always about catch up. We didn’t regain the amount of ground we would have liked.”

Voters headed to the polls for the three elections on Friday.

The polls will provide political parties with an insight into voter sentiment ahead of the next general election, which must be held by March 2025.

Polling stations across the EU shut at 22:00 on Sunday night, allowing count centres to start declaring results for the European elections.

A total of 14 MEPs will be elected across the three constituencies of Ireland South, Midlands-North-West and Dublin.

However, no candidates were last night elected in the European constituencies of Dublin, Midlands-North-West or Ireland South.