Fianna Fáil is set to suffer major local election losses and Sinn Féin is likely to achieve significant gains, following a sharply increased vote in yesterday's local and European Parliament elections and the citizenship referendum. The overall turnout could exceed 55 per cent if preliminary figures from returning officers are confirmed today, compared with the 1999 local elections, when nearly 49 per cent voted, writes Mark Hennessy, Political Correspondent.
"We have not got the final figures yet, but it is up everywhere. There is no doubt about that," said the returning officer for the Dublin constituencies, City Sheriff, Mr John Fitzpatrick.
There are indications that Sinn Féin has managed to increase turnout in working-class areas, which previously failed even to break the 20 per cent mark.
In one, Corduff, near Mulhuddart, the turn-out, though still low, was up by half. "If the figures are up everywhere then it has to be a sign that it will be a drubbing," one senior Fianna Fáil figure conceded.
The good weather in many places clearly helped to bring out voters, while the citizenship referendum also encouraged voters - on both sides of the argument. In some Dublin wards, young voters asked only for a referendum ballot paper.
In Ballyfermot, the turnout exceeded 50 per cent, while Swords and Balbriggan were also set to rise above 50 per cent, with voting figures in Shankill, Dublin, expected to be up 7 percentage points.
In Cork, the turnout on the city's northside was up by an estimated 6 per cent on the 1999 result to 46 per cent, while the turnout on the southside was in the mid-60s.
In the county, Fermoy reported a 60 per cent turnout; Bandon, 75 per cent; Macroom, 80 per cent; while in Tralee in Kerry approximately 65 per cent turned out.
In the 1999 local elections, Fianna Fáil won 382 city and county council seats; Fine Gael, 277; Labour, 83; Progressive Democrats, 25; Sinn Féin, 21; Green Party, 8; and Others 87.
Fianna Fáil at that time gained 25 seats following a one percentage point increase in support, while Labour, the PDs and Democratic Left were seen as the big losers.
All voters were faced with three ballot papers - one for the citizenship referendum, one to choose an MEP, and one for city and council elections; and, in some areas, a fourth for town council elections.
The Department of the Environment is predicting that the result of the citizenship referendum should be known by 9 p.m. today.
The Taoiseach was one of the early voters when he turned up at his Dublin northside polling booth at 8 a.m., two hours after arriving home from the G8 summit.