An independent candidate who received almost two quotas will have a strong claim when negotiations open in Waterford over who should be the city's next mayor.
The performance of Mr Davy Daniels, who received more than 1,500 first-preference votes, was the major talking point of the Waterford City Council elections.
A consistent poll topper during his 25 years on the council, Mr Daniels was excluded from a voting pact on the mayoralty between Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and another independent member of the outgoing council, Mr Stephen Rogers, after the last election.
But following a performance which outshone any of the major party candidates, a Labour Party source said Mr Daniels would have to be strongly considered.
With seven of its 15 outgoing members retiring, the election was always going to be something of a clean sweep for the council, but the anticipated shake-up in the gender balance - the outgoing authority had no women - failed to materialise. Only Fianna Fail's Ms Mary Roche, was successful.
Ms Roche, a public relations consultant, said the result showed there wasn't a "women's vote" in the city. Asked if it would be intimidating to join a council with 14 men, she said: "Yes, I'm going to intimidate them all."
Fianna Fail and Fine Gael maintained their strength on the council, retaining four and three seats respectively. But there was a re-alignment of support on the left, with Labour losing two of its four seats and the Workers' Party adding one to the two it previously held.
The biggest loser in the Waterford County Council election was Fine Gael's Mr Oliver Coffey, who failed to hold his seat. Had he retired, he would have been entitled to £18,000 under the Government's "scrappage scheme".
Mr Coffey's defeat capped a disastrous result for his party in the Kilmacthomas electoral area where it failed to have either of its two candidates elected.
In the neighbouring Suir area, however, it was Fianna Fail's voting transfers which let it down, with Fine Gael surprisingly taking two of the three seats.
In Carlow, the biggest talking point was the poll-topping performance in Borris of the Green Party's Ms Mary White.
Fianna Fail has maintained its position on the outgoing council, with nine seats; Fine Gael has seven, Labour three, and the Progressive Democrats and the Green Party one each. A Fianna Fail/PD and Fine Gael/Labour alignment, should it come about, would leave Ms White, the council's first ever Green Party member, with the crucial vote on who should chair the authority.
Former Fianna Fail TD Mr MJ Nolan defied predictions to hold his seat, but the PDs' national chairman, Sen Jim Gibbons, as expected failed to make it.
Wexford County Council saw the expected return of former Ministers Mr Ivan Yates and Mr Brendan Howlin.
