'Not a good day' – Green leader Roderic O'Gorman admits that the ...

The party now expects to have only three seats when the votes are fully counted, compared to 12 going into the contest.

Those three survivors are expected to be Mr O'Gorman himself in Dublin West, Ossian Smyth in Dun Laoghaire, and Catherine Martin in Dublin Rathdown.

"It's clear the Green Party has not had a good day," a rueful Mr O'Gorman admitted at the count centre in Dublin West.

"I know a number of my colleagues are scared they will lose their seats."

Asked by the Irish Independent for his best guess as to what the Greens will come back with, Mr O'Gorman replied: "I think at this stage, it's probably looking at two to three.

"I think that's, that's what we're looking at, just at the moment. Obviously, I'm, I'm not all over the tallies, but from what I'm hearing, it's a low number.

"Some very good colleagues who worked incredibly hard over the last the last four and a half years ago, will lose their seats.

"And some fantastic candidates as well won't be, won't be making over the line this time around.

"We're in the fight in a couple of places, including here in Dublin West.

"I'm fifth now on the tallies in a five seater, but ahead for the fifth seat.

"I think in a number of other constituencies will be in the in the contention for the final seat. But look, undoubtedly, it's a it's a disappointing result for our party.

"We got a mandate in 2020 and that was a mandate to go into Government, to act on climate, to act to support families and children all over the country. And we did that.

"We worked hard over four and a half years. We now have our lowest carbon emissions in the last 30 years. We've invested in public transport. We've halved the cost of childcare.

"We've made very significant legislative reforms as well. But it's hard for a smaller party in Government. That has long been the tradition, and the history in Ireland.

"We hoped going into the election that we would buck that, but we haven't been able to."