Greens Wipeout

The Green Party has been left ruing its decision to enter government with Fianna Fail after the last election.

All six of the party TDs lost their seats, including party leader John Gormley, outgoing Minister Eamon Ryan and the party's founder Trevor Sargent.

Paul Gogarty, Ciaran Cuffe and Mary White all failed to get re-elected too.

"We have suffered a major defeat, but the party will regroup," said Mr Gormley, "We will continue. We are a party with a set of beliefs and values and a vision or the future.

"We are going to rebuild this party."

The disastrous result was not unexpected, and some party members say it was the price to pay for the "Faustian pact" with Fianna Fail.

Defeated candidate in Dun Laoghaire Ciaran Cuffe said the decision to enter coalition government had come back to haunt the party.

But he said he was proud of their achievements while in office, including reforming planning and introducing civil partnerships.

It's not uncommon for smaller parties in government in Ireland to suffer - the Progressive Democrats were equally punished by an angry electorate at the last election.

But Trevor Sargent rejected any comparisons with the now defunct PDs.

"We were there before the PDs, we're outlasting them," he said.