There are still over 700 council seats yet to be filled and 14 European Parliament seats up for grabs as counting resume across Ireland today. 

So far, 197 of the 949 local election seats have been declared - with some counts continuing into the very early hours of the morning. 

The pace of counting has varied massively; Leitrim County Council was the first to fill all its seats, while some have yet to even announce a first count. 

Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are in a tight race to be the largest party in local Government.

However, it has been a poor election for Sinn Féin, who polled around 11% on the votes currently counted. 

Staff carrying ballot papers for the Local and European elections in the RDS Dublin. Photo: Sasko Lazarov/© RollingNews.ie

Counting in the European elections is also underway this morning.

In Dublin, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Sinn Féin are expected to take a seat each with the last seat expected to go to Niall Boylan of Independent Ireland, Labour’s Aodhan Ó Ríordáin, Ciarán Cuffe of the Greens, People Before Profit’s Bríd Smith or incumbent Clare Daly.

Tallies were fairly scattergun in Ireland South and Midlands-North-West yesterday but a better idea of who is in the running will likely emerge this morning. 

Luke Ming Flanagan is well placed with a number of other independents likely to be in the shake up.

Main image: Fianna Fáil's Deirdre Heney is elected in Dublin. Image: Eamonn Farrell/RollingNews.ie