These election counts are a marathon, not a sprint and it really is early days in these election counts.
Any predictions about winners and losers come with a major health warning at this stage.
But a few hours after the ballot boxes opened and the sorting of votes commenced, what takeaways do we have?
What picture is emerging? And are there any patterns developing?
Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil support holding up
We are only just at the segregation of local and European ballot papers in most count centres, but it already appears that the two largest Government parties - Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil - are having a decent day at the office.
Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Peter Burke said he believes the centre ground is holding.
"A lot of the fringe vote is very desperate, it's spread out among four or five candidates," he said.
"But you can really see in the centre there's a very, very strong vote there so it'll be interesting when the eliminations happen what way that plays out, that will be exceptionally interesting I think."
Independents' Day
Tally information from several count centres across the country suggest that today will be a very good day for independent candidates.
In Kerry, Jackie Healy Rae looks set to top the poll and get elected in the first count in the Castleisland LEA.
Similarly, in Sligo veteran independent councillor Declan Bree - who has been a councillor for 50 years - looks set to top the poll.
In Conamara North, Independent councillor Tom Welby topped the poll with Séamus Walsh of Independent Ireland also taking a seat.
Too many Sinn Féin candidates?
In the last national election, Sinn Féin was roundly criticised for not running enough candidates in the 2020 general election.
It has already been said that the party may have run too many candidates in these local elections.
The party had such a disastrous outing in the last local elections in 2019, Sinn Féin is sure to increase its overall number of council seats but it may not do as well as expected.
But it is very early yet. Sinn Féin TD Louise O'Reilly said transfers are likely to decide the last few seats in every electoral area and that the transfer patterns "are just not clear" at the moment.
Her party colleague, Tipperary TD Martin Browne said: "It doesn't seem to be going too well for us at the minute."
"We've already said we cannot persuade the public to change if we don't change ourselves and give the public more options, so that's why we ran so many candidates this time - three in the Cashel-Tipperary LEA.
"We believe change is needed at local, European and national level. Hopefully we'll get some of the first timers over the line."
Mixed fortunes for Greens
Rumours of the Greens’ demise may have been somewhat exaggerated - at least at local level.
Back in 2019, the party had its best ever result, winning 49 council seats.
Green party Minister Roderic O’Gorman has acknowledged that the party’s vote is down.
He did add: "We are holding seats and we are going to be in a fight for the fourth, fifth and sixth seats in a lot of places."
In Dublin, Michael Pidgeon and Claire Byre appear to have polled well.
Former TD and veteran councillor Dan Boyle looks set to hold his seat in Cork, while tallies indicated seats won last time around in Wicklow could be held.
Tallies indicated here has been a strong showing too from Dingle GP and Green candidate Dr Peadar O’Fionnáin who has managed to pick votes up across the Dingle peninsula.
Party leader Eamon Ryan has acknowledged outgoing Dublin MEP Ciarán Cuffe is in trouble, but he was always going to be in a battle for the last seat and it will come down to transfers in the days ahead.
100% Redress candidate Tomas Devine is polling very well in Letterkenny LEA. Tallies are indicating 3 possible seats for mica candidates in Donegal @rtenews #LE2024 @100_redress pic.twitter.com/jLq02thHFZ
— Teresa Mannion (@TeresaMannion) June 8, 2024
Mica candidates to win Donegal seats
Mica redress is a massive issue in the North West and these local elections look set to put it front and centre in Donegal ahead of the forthcoming general election.
Yesterday marked a first outing for a new political party, '100% Redress’, which is campaigning on behalf of homeowners who have been affected by defective concrete products.
Six 100% Redress candidates ran in the seven local electoral areas in Donegal.
Chairman of the 100% Redress party Tomas Devine has said that he is "not one bit surprised" by his party's positive early Donegal County Council election tallies in the Buncrana local electoral area.
The Letterkenny candidate's colleague Joy Beard currently has 17.3% of the vote in Buncrana according to a recent tally, second to Sinn Féin's Jack Murray at 24.6%.
Mr Devine said of Ms Beard: "This woman works 12 to 13 hours a day helping people and it's great at this early stage to be confident that she will in fact make the quota."
"We're not career politicians, we're normal people affected by this crisis and we're here to fight hard to make things right."
