Local election results: Hundreds of seats yet to be filled as FF and FG set to battle it out to be largest party

The first Dublin candidates to be elected in the local elections were James Geoghegan of Fine Gael and Hazel Chu of the Green Party. Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Independent candidates have filled the vast majority of the council seats declared so far. Fianna Fáil held six seats and emerged as the largest party, with Sinn Féin (four) and Independent candidates (five) gaining at the expense of Fine Gael (three). In a voice message to a Fine Gael WhatsApp group on Saturday, Taoiseach Simon Harris said he was “so encouraged” by the results he had seen. “That can only be a good thing,” the Fianna Fáil TD said at Cork City Hall.