As Fianna Fáil counts the cost of its poor performance in the local elections, Minister of State, Mr Brian Lenihan, tried to place a positive spin on the losses saying the results represented a mid-term shift reflected across Europe.
Citing local election results in Britain which saw a major drop in support for the Labour Party and similar losses for the ruling party in the Czech Republic, Mr Lenihan, speaking on RTE Television, said Fianna Fáil remained the leading party and despite the crisis at local level it would be premature to question the future of the party's leadership.
Results from Dublin so far show a fall of 9.9 per cent for Fianna Fáil, while Sinn Féin has seen its support increase by 8.3 per cent. The situation is similar throughout the country with Fianna Fáil sustaining major losses in each of the main constituencies.
Despite predicted losses following a poor performance in the last General Election, the party looks set to hold their share of first preference votes at 25.6 per cent and claim 32 per cent of local council seats.
Fine Gael's vice-president Mr Alan Dukes said the local results, while representing an increase in support for opposition parties, of much greater concern was the profile of new voters that Sinn Féin had attracted.
He said the new voter, young and employed, was the type of person that his party and the other main parties would like to attract and that Fine Gael would now have to shift its focus into territory where it will be competing with Sinn Féin.
The Labour Pary looks to hold on to the most of its 46 sets. Party spokeswoman, Ms Joan Burton added that the party was on course to become the largest party in Dublin.
She said the national performance was brought down by poor results in Connacht/Ulster and Munster, but it was now set to be the largest party on Dublin City Council.
Sinn Féin's Mr Martin McGuiness said a new sector of the electorate had been mobilised and they now had people would be challenging very strong for future Dáil seats.