Richard Bruton: Yes, it's very disappointing for Fine Gael

Speaking to reporters, Mr Bruton said the lower than expected result for the party was a “surprise” which would result in the loss of many of his colleagues in the next Dáil.

Asked about why the party's message had failed to connect, Mr Bruton said it was clear many people across the country were “still smarting” at the cuts imposed on them, but he said for three of the past five years, the Government was dealing with a near-bankrupt country.

Mr Bruton, who looks set to retain his seat in the Dublin Bay North Constituency, said he still has confidence in Taoiseach Enda Kenny and did not call for him to resign, despite the collapse in support.

Mr Bruton would also not be drawn on the possibility of a Fine Gael-Fianna Fáil coalition, insisiting his party would need some time to reflect on the the result.

Overall, Fine Gael and Labour look set to lose as many as 50 seats, with a host of senior Labour figures likely to lose their seats.

Fine Gael could return with as few as 44 seats, based on two exit polls.

The party's deputy leader Dr James Reilly is in real trouble to hold his seat and looks to be the most likely ministerial casualty

For Labour, Tánaiste and party leader Joan Burton looks set to be re-elected in Dublin West, but will have to wait a long time to be officially declared.

But several of the party's Junior Ministers look set to be wiped out.

In Cork, junior health minister Kathleen Lynch is set to lose her seat as is Ciaran Lynch.

In Dublin, both Kevin Humphreys and Aodhan O Riordain are in real trouble.

As to Fine Gael's woes, party strategist Mark Mortell accepted it is going to be a very bad day for the party.

Speaking to Sean O'Rourke on RTE Radio 1 he accepted the possibility that Fianna Fáil could be the largest party in terms of seats but said we would have to wait and see, citing Fine Gael's stronger exit poll showing in terms of transfers and emphasising that the true picture could take days to unfold.

"We could be less than 50 seats by the end of the day." Mortell said, stating that Fine Gael would be well shy of the their 30% target based on exit polls.

When asked about the stability of a possible government, based on the current tallies, Mr Mortell said the prospect of another election soon was very high.

“We’re going to see an awful lot of colleagues who didn’t get seats today and that’s going to be another set of issues that we face throughout the day,” Mr Mortell said.

“What you’ve got here is an extraordinary situation. It is a massive fracturing of the political system.”

“It creates immediately a huge amount of volatility and if you look just across into Europe, and what’s happened in Spain and Portugal this does mean we’re going to have a very, very interesting couple of weeks ahead of us and very, very demanding ones,” he earlier told presenters Chris Donoghue and Ivan Yates.