An RTE exit poll suggests Independents have been the big winners of the local and European elections, with a drubbing for the Labour party.

Fine Gael has also suffered a drop in support, Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin are up, but Sinn Féin hasn't done as well as earlier polls suggested.

In the European elections the exit poll suggests that Labour and the Greens have equal support on 6%.

The full results of the RTE exit poll are as follows:

EUROPEAN ELECTIONS:

Independents and Others 27%

Fine Gael 22%

Fianna Fáil 22%

Sinn Féin 17%

Labour 6%

Greens 6%

LOCAL ELECTIONS:

Independents and Others 28%

Fine Gael 24%

Fianna Fáil 22%

Sinn Féin 16%

Labour 7%

Greens 3%

The counting of votes in the local elections and two by-elections has been underway since 9am this morning.

The first task for those counting is to sort the European and local election ballots - a slow process as every ballot will be put out face up to allow for them to be tallied.

The European votes will then be put back in ballot boxes and transferred to count centres in Dublin, Cork and Mayo, where they will be counted tomorrow.

Counting in the Longford-Westmeath and Dublin West by-elections is also taking place. These should be somewhat quicker as no sorting of these ballots  is required

IMAGE: Count Centre Keenagh (Longford Westmeath)

IMAGE: Dublin West