Mary Lou McDonald defiant after Sinn Fein poll flop, and calls on Taoiseach to 'bring it on' regrading an Irish election

Mary Lou McDonald struck a defiant note following her party's disappointing showing in the country's local election and rejected any suggestion Taoiseach Simon Harris would be doing her a favour if he stuck to his original plan to go to the polls in early 2025.

Mr Harris and deputy premier Micheal Martin have both moved to dampen speculation of an earlier-than-expected general election after their respective parties - Fine Gael and Fianna Fail - performed better than many pollsters had predicted in Friday's local and European elections.

Counting in both those contests continued on Monday, while ballots began to be totted up in Limerick for Ireland's first ever directly elected mayor.

While it could still take days to finish counting every vote across the country, the political implications of the results are already reverberating.

Both Mr Harris and Mr Martin will undoubtedly be weighing the political calculus around calling an early general election, and some supporters are already urging them to go to country early, in order to capitalise on their momentum and limit the time for Sinn Fein to turn around its electoral fortunes.

Sinn Fein has already announced an internal review after its poor performance while Ms McDonald has apologised for the results.

Some opinion polls last year saw Sinn Fein riding high on 30%-plus support among the electorate, but the party attracted only 12% of first preference votes in Friday's local government elections.

While that was still up on its showing in the last local council poll in 2019, the result is well short of what the party had hoped for.

That turnaround has prompted speculation that the Government coalition partners - Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and the Greens - may ultimately take up the potentially appealing option of going for an early general election.

Speaking to reporters at the main count centre in Dublin on Monday evening, Ms McDonald acknowledged that her party may not have always been as clear it could have been around its messaging.

Critics of the party claim its failure to make a major electoral breakthrough is in part due to mixed messages on key issues and instances where it has been accused of flip-flopping.

Asked about those claims, Ms McDonald said: "I think clarity is a good position.

"Sinn Fein has positions and, of course, we can always get better at articulating them with clarity. I think that's only fair to say that."

Asked if Ms Harris would be doing her a favour if he decided against an early election, Ms McDonald replied: "The Taoiseach could be accused of many things - doing favours for me is not one of those.

"I want us to contest the general election and I want us to have that at the earliest possible date because I firmly believe that we need a change of government.

"When the Taoiseach calls the election is anybody's guess. He seems to be indicating that it might go to next spring. I rather suspect that it will happen in the autumn, that's my speculation."

She added: "We'll be ready whenever it happens. Bring it on."

Ms McDonald also dismissed speculation that her own position as leader may now be in question.

"I am the leader of Sinn Fein and I will lead the party into the next general election," she said.

Earlier, Mr Martin insisted the leaders of the coalition government remain committed to serving a full term.

The Tanaiste said the Government would stay focused on delivery, citing the autumn budget as its main priority.

On Sunday, the Taoiseach insisted he has no plans to bring forward the timetable for an election from spring 2025.

Mr Martin echoed that stance as he arrived at the RDS count centre in Dublin on Monday.

Asked if there were any circumstances in which he would support bringing the date forward into this year, he said: "We've agreed to go the full term and the Taoiseach and I and Eamon Ryan (Green Party leader) have agreed that."

Elsewhere on Monday, Fine Gael minister of state and Government chief whip Hildegarde Naughton said the public was craving "stability" as she insisted an early general election was not on her party's mind.

"That's the strong message that we're getting. So we really do have a lot of work to do in relation to this and elections are not on our mind," she told RTE.

The TD for Galway West added: "We have a programme for government that we need to deliver, a huge amount has been delivered to date.

"But a lot of this legislation does take time to get over the line and we have such an amount of bills to get through right up to mid-July and also when we are back in the Dail in September. So we really need to finish off that work."

Fianna Fail and Fine Gael are battling it out for the most seats in the local government election as the counting approached its conclusion on Monday evening.

Both main coalition partners attracted around 23% of first preference votes.

Counting in the European election began on Sunday and continued on Monday.

Dublin is the only one of the country's three constituencies to reach the point of completing the first count.

After 10 rounds of counting, Fianna Fail's Barry Andrews and Fine Gael's Regina Doherty remain on course to secure two of the four seats in the constituency.

Sinn Fein's Lynn Boylan; Ciaran Cuffe from the Greens; Labour's Aodhan O Riordain; Independent Ireland's Niall Boylan; Clare Daly of Independents 4 Change; and Brid Smith of People Before Profit - Solidarity are the main contenders for the remaining two seats.

The outcome of the first count in Ireland South could come on Monday night, with Fine Gael's Sean Kelly and Fianna Fail's Billy Kelleher looking well placed.

The Midlands-North-West constituency could also see the first count conclude later on Monday night, as officials grapple with what is set to be a marathon process of whittling down the 27 candidates vying for five seats.

The third election last Friday saw voters in Limerick given the opportunity to select what will be Ireland's first directly elected mayor.

Counting in the Limerick mayoral contest began on Monday, with independent candidate John Moran topping the poll. He remained out in front after four counts.

UUP MLA Tom Elliott said it was “interesting” that Sinn Fein have been “”struggling” in the Republic of Ireland elections.

“I suggest this may be a situation whereby their policies on the real day to day elements of government that matter to the people are not as popular as they believe they are,” he said.

“It would appear that Sinn Fein’s financial, economic and social ideas have all fallen short of what the public want.

“Their delivery in government in Northern Ireland has demonstrated the immature position of Sinn Fein when they are given power of authority, they say that the health service is their priority, but their finance minister provides a health budget that has been described as catastrophic by the Health Trusts Chiefs – Hardly provides confidence to the wider community."

The Republic’s Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien ( of Fianna Fail) said Sinn Fein’s disappointing election results are down to people tiring of its failure to present credible alternative plans.

Sinn Fein has repeatedly accused Darragh O’Brien of failing to deal adequately with Ireland’s housing crisis.

Mr O’Brien, in turn, has been one of the main opposition party’s most vocal critics, leading to frequent fiery clashes in the Dail.

The Fianna Fail minister rounded on his rivals on Monday when asked to assess its failure to make major gains at the local elections.

“What I certainly picked up on the doorstep from talking to people is, people are really tired of them shouting, roaring, giving out and coming forward with no alternative,” he said.

“I am fine as housing minister, where people will raise criticisms, whether they be constructive or not, but the fact that we have the main opposition party that said 18 months ago that they would publish a housing plan (and) still have not done so, have still continued to object to housing developments across the city and country, and we are seeing record levels of housebuilding now.”

Mr O’Brien said the Government was making progress to address acute accommodation shortages, but he acknowledged there was a need to do more and accelerate efforts.

“Not everyone is feeling that progress, and we know that, but we are making that progress in relation to housing delivery,” he said.

“Look it’s for Sinn Fein, they can reflect in whatever way they want, but people have given their verdict of Sinn Fein as apparently an alternative to the current government, and I think that’s been very clear at the ballot box.”

He added: “I think the people have given a very clear view on where they see Sinn Fein.”

Meanwhile, Sinn Fein, Ireland’s main opposition party, has already announced an internal review after a poor performance in the elections. Leader Mary Lou McDonald apologised for the results.

Sinn Fein TD David Cullinane has said his party will be “match fit” for a general election whenever it is called.

He also insisted Ms McDonald remained the right person to lead the party into that poll.

Mr Cullinane said Sinn Fein was “humble” enough to acknowledge Friday’s elections had not delivered the results the party had wanted.

“We will learn, but also if this government or when this government calls the general election, we will meet them head-on on their failed records on so many issues, but, more importantly, on our positive vision on what we can do to deliver,” he told RTE.

He added: “People vote differently in a local and European election to a general election. We saw that before. It’s possible some of the Sinn Fein vote or some of those people who want change stayed at home in the local election. And we know that some of the people who possibly intended to vote for Sinn Fein voted for independents.

Asked about why he felt Sinn Fein had not delivered on pre-election expectations, Mr Martin suggested it had failed to offer up substantive solutions to challenges facing the country, characterising the party’s policy offerings as “threadbare”.

Pending the outcome of the first count in Ireland South yesterday, Fianna Fail’s candidate Billy Kelleher said: “The public looked at others and rejected them resoundingly, both in terms of the very populist anti-migrant groupings on the right, but equally Sinn Fein as well in terms of their simplistic views to complex problems."