Tá ár lá tagtha —as Sinn Féin vow not to be bought

Sinn Féin have pledged they will not be bought in any future government, after a landslide victory in local and European elections which saw the party take control of city councils.

Party leader Gerry Adams admitted more councillors could have been elected in some areas, but the resources and candidates were not there.

His party looked set to take at least two if not three of the 11 MEP seats last night and possibly 140 of the 949 council seats.

Dismissing claims that the surge in votes for his party was just a mid-term kicking for the Fine Gael-Labour Coalition, Mr Adams said the switch in support was more “deep rooted”.

He said it remained unclear if support for his party was affected by his arrest by the PSNI during the campaign, in relation to the investigation of the 1972 murder of Belfast mother Jean McConville.

An RTÉ exit poll found 32% of party supporters said their vote was influenced by his arrest.

Mr Adams added: “Obviously we want to be in government. We’re ambitious for the people of this island. We’re ambitious for Sinn Féin itself.

“We’re hungry for change but not hungry for government. We won’t leave our principles outside the door.

“The big challenge will be to get a mandate in the first instance and in the second instance to negotiate a programme for government which would satisfy the programme for change, for a citizens rights-based society,” he said in the RDS, Dublin.

He said there had been a “seismic change” in how people voted for parties in Ireland.

Mr Adams said the current Coalition had torn up commitments and that people felt insulted.

The Louth TD said he hoped the brutal result for Labour may give them some “backbone” to challenge any attempt at taking another €2bn out of the economy in October’s budget, as is planned.

The party now takes control of Dublin City Council after securing 16 of the 63 seats, as well as now being the biggest party in Cork City. In some wards, there was a large surplus of Sinn Féin votes. But Mr Adams said Sinn Féin could not have fielded other hopefuls.

“We didn’t have the structure; we didn’t have the candidates; we couldn’t have run more.”

Earlier, he told reporters in Dublin West that the bruising results for Labour and Fine Gael at council level was a “notice to quit”, adding: “The sooner the [general] election is called the better.”

Arriving at the RDS last night, Dublin MEP candidate Lynn Boylan said she hoped Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore had taken note of the local and European election results.

Deputy party leader Mary Lou McDonald said Ms Boylan’s election results proved that if good young female candidates ran for politics, they would get the support they needed.

She also said that the party would not pay any price in order to enter government.

Final outcomes for the European elections were unknown last night.

A significant issue with Sinn Féin’s dominance at local level now in some councils, particularly in Dublin City, will be how they operate and negotiate future local budgets. Some Coalition councillors privately suggested at the weekend that Sinn Féin would try and block future budgets, pushing issues back onto central Government in order to force a general election.

For more in depth updates and analysis on the fallout from this year's election and access to our comprehensive results database visit our special Election 2014 section.