#Elections2019: Country on red alert for general election

The country has been placed on red alert for an early general election this year, with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar insisting he “can’t rule it out”.

As local and European count results continued to pour in last night, Mr Varadkar said he could not guarantee beyond a few days or weeks that an election would not be called given the fragility of the Government’s position in Dáil Éireann.

Mr Varadkar was speaking as Fine Gael was set to lose out on being the largest party in local government to Fianna Fáil for the second time in a row.

Although Friday night’s RTÉ/TG4 exit poll had the parties neck-and-neck on 23%, first count results nationally put Micheál Martin’s party in pole position on 27% compared to Fine Gael’s 25%.

The predicted “green wave” appeared to be overstated in the exit poll by several percentage points, with the party’s Dublin MEP candidate Ciarán Cuffe falling well short of the 23% predicted. He failed to be elected on the first count as had been expected.

The fate of the party’s two other MEP candidates — Saoirse McHugh and Grace O’Sullivan — will become clear today, but Ms McHugh is appearing less likely to take a seat.

However, with at least three by-elections likely by the end of November due to TDs taking seats in Europe, Mr Varadkar said he will only stay in office if he can do the job.

“This is all about ensuring we have a functioning Government. So as long as the Government can function and function well and get our job done and get our agenda through, then there is no need for an election. But if that becomes a problem, then obviously that changes things,” he said.

Asked if he was definitively ruling out an early general election, Mr Varadkar added: “I can’t rule it out. First of all, it is not necessarily my decision. Others could pull the plug on the Government.

"If I am the one to seek a dissolution, I have to bear in mind other factors. Not ruling [it out] but not a prospect in the next couple of days or weeks.”

Mr Varadkar said that in the context of the current Dáil and a minority Government, “where we only have a quarter of the seats, that is just the reality of this.

Of course, anyone in Government would prefer to be in with a stable majority, but that is the way it is,” he said.

He added: “If this was about maximising the prospect for my party Fine Gael, we would have gone to the country a year ago in the aftermath of the referendum when we were on 35% in the polls.

"I have never put the party first when it comes to these issues: Putting the country first, there are issues that we need to deal with,” he added.

“Brexit, getting the broadband contract through, putting together a budget and of course, there are by-elections. All those four factors and others are at play but I don’t intend to be calling into Áras an Uachtaráin in the next couple of days,” Mr Varadkar said.

In Cork, Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said he was “amused” at general election speculation.

Reacting to the Taoiseach’s comments, Mr Martin said: “I’m amused at all this talk of a general election. My position is consistent; it’s the position I set out before Christmas.

I have never looked at local elections as a catalyst for a general election and I don’t look at the Europeans as a catalyst for a general election; I take it one step at a time.

He added that Fianna Fáil is prepared to “work constructively towards a budget”, and the party had extended the confidence and supply agreement to take account of this.

“We will see the outcome of those by-elections. They may not materially affect the situation in the Dáil — it depends on who wins the seats and we don’t know who is going to win seats in European. Let’s take it one step at a time, I think people love exciting news,” he said.

In the RDS, Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald expressed disappointment at her party’s poor showing at local government level.

The party’s support collapsed in some urban areas and by more than 5% nationally.

Commenting on the possibility of an early general election, Ms McDonald said: “Whenever there is an election, we will fight the election and we will fight it on a platform of social progress and Irish unity.”

None of the 13 MEP seats were filled last night.

As of 10pm at local council level: Fianna Fáil led the way with 209 seats, Fine Gael had 183, Sinn Féin 59, Green Party 43, Labour 42, Social Democrats 11, Solidarity/People Before Profit 9 and Independents and others 155.

Across Europe, the main conservative group in the European Parliament will remain the largest bloc after the elections, but has lost considerable ground, according to an EU Parliament exit poll.

The centre-right EPP group is likely to have the most seats in the assembly with 173, down from its current number of 216.

The centre-left Socialists and Democrats are projected to win 147 seats, down from 185, and as a result, the two mainstream parties between them will no longer have a majority in the parliament.