Greens' reaction:Green Party leader Trevor Sargent has blamed his party's relatively poor performance on being squeezed by the two larger parties and has rejected suggestions that the party's campaign strategy had failed.
As of late last night, the party could be certain of holding just four of its six seats, while none of its prospective seat gains had transpired.
Mr Sargent held his own seat in Dublin North, while Paul Gogarty was also elected for the party in Dublin Mid West.
John Gormley held on to his Dublin South East seat by just over 300 votes from Progressive Democrats leader Michael McDowell.
Éamon Ryan was also seen as being certain of holding his seat in Dublin South.
However, both Ciarán Cuffe and Dan Boyle were in extremely close battles to retain their seats in Dún Laoghaire and Cork South Central, with serious concern within the party that at least one of the TDs will lose their seat.
Deirdre de Búrca, who had been widely tipped to take a seat for the party in Wicklow, polled 7.4 per cent of the first-preference vote, which was insufficient for her to survive into the final counts.
Galway city mayor Niall Ó Brolcháin also had a relatively poor performance for the party.
Speaking from the Dublin North count in Portmarnock last night, Mr Sargent said the party's performance was "disappointing", but he remained optimistic the party could retain its six seats.
"We still have some hill to climb," he said.
He rejected suggestions the party's decision not to align itself with an alternative coalition had failed.
"A squeeze is a squeeze, and in spite of that the Green Party managed to hold and increase its overall vote," he said.
Asked about the possibility of coalition with Fianna Fáil, Mr Sargent indicated that he had not changed his previous position that he would not lead the Greens into coalition with Fianna Fáil.
"I campaigned to get the current Government out of office, and my position [on Fianna Fáil] has not changed," he said.
"It's a retrograde step," he said of the likelihood that Fianna Fáil would be the main party in the next government.
However, he added that the party would be open to talk to Fianna Fáil, should the party be approached about a possible coalition.
"We're open to talk to everybody, but anyone who wants to talk to us, I'd advise them to read our manifesto and policies first," he said.
He said any possible government involving his party "will have to be a Green one".
Speaking about the party's performance, Mr Sargent said: "If you think of Fianna Fáil and certainly Fine Gael being resurgent there was always going to be difficulty for the smaller parties that have grown on the back of the demise of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael and you might expect that to have a bearing on all small parties, but it's something of an exception that the Green Party has actually grown in terms of our overall growth percentage so we are continuing to grow while other smaller parties have actually suffered."
He said it was "far too early to call in relation to the final seat tally" and said the party was "something of a transfer magnet".
"We do get transfers right across the political spectrum because people believe in what the Greens are saying.
"They may be wedded to their traditional parties but they know that the Greens are talking sense and have a lot to offer Irish politics."
Green Party TD Paul Gogarty told The Irish Times that the party "hadn't been brave enough" in being more critical of Labour and Fine Gael.
"We were too timid," he said of the party during the campaign.
