The Tánaiste said the Government is not using the local elections as a 'bellwether' for the general election.
Micheál Martin was speaking as the local elections are over the half way mark with 513 out of 949 seats filled.
Fianna Fail and Fine Gael are neck in neck with their share of the vote on 23%.
It continues to be a disappointing run for Sinn Fein who are on 12% nationally.
Independents are taking just over 20% of first preference votes.
The Green Party is on 4%, Labour on 5% and the Social Democrats on 3.7%.
Tánaiste Micheál Martin told Newstalk they are very happy with the results.
"I'm very pleased with the local election results, I think we've exceeded expectations," he said.
"Many people had written us off [and] said we'd come in as a distant third.
"The result is that we've exceeded predictions."
Counting in Dublin's RDS for the remaining seats in the local elections, 9-6-24. Image: Sasko Lazarov / © RollingNews.ieMr Martin said several recent opinion polls got it wrong.
"It basically means that Fianna Fáil is a major political force in this country, will remain a major political force, and particularly in local government now coming out of today we have some very new candidates coming through as well," he said.
The Tánaiste said they have no plans to rush a general election on the back of these results.
"A general election is different to a local election - you've a multiplicity of candidates in a local election, you've different personal parish geography as factors at play," he said.
"We will evaluate the local elections from that perspective - we didn't get it all right, by the way.
"I start off with a blank sheet after this local election; I am not using the local elections performance - or indeed the European performance - as a sort of bellwether for the general election.
"I think it would be foolish to do that".
'So now that you have Sinn Féin on the run, you don't want to take advantage, is that it?'
Ivan Yates questions @MichealMartinTD @ElectionNT pic.twitter.com/PGLiDHMKpY
— NewstalkFM (@NewstalkFM) June 9, 2024
Mr Martin said he believes moving into another election too soon would be the wrong move.
"I think we're going to keep the focus on the budget... I think that's the correct thing to do," he said.
"I think the people will reward and respect serious, focused politics."
He said an early general election could be seen as "trying to seek electoral strategic advantage".
"We're going to go to full-term, that's the intention of the Government," he said.
"If everybody thinks we're doing nothing but electioneering, and just looking at the electoral side of things, I think people will punish Government," he added.
Counting is also underway in the European Parliament elections with a result for Dublin expected later tonight.
