The Green Party is set to suffer significant losses in the Irish General Election, with its leader expecting just a handful of parliamentarians to be returned.

Children’s Minister Roderic O’Gorman said the party could not buck the trend in Ireland of junior coalition partners in Fine Gael and Fianna Fail governments losing support in subsequent elections.

He said they expected to retain two to three seats out of the 12 they had won in the 2020 election on the back of a worldwide “Green wave”.

“Undoubtedly it’s a disappointing result for our party today,” Mr O’Gorman told reporters in Ongar, Dublin.

“It’s hard for a smaller party in government, that’s long been the tradition, the history in Ireland. We hoped going into the election to buck that but we haven’t been able to buck that today.”

Mr O’Gorman, a candidate in Dublin West, is among the outgoing Green Party TDs in a battle to retain their seats.

Culture Minister Catherine Martin, who is fighting to remain a Green Party TD for Dublin Rathdown, said it was a “very tight” race in her four-seat constituency.

“We go in (to government) not afraid of that because the issue of the climate and biodiversity crisis is (greater) than our survival,” she said on RTE Radio.

“I stand over and am proud of our track record of delivery.”

Green candidate in Waterford Marc O Cathasaigh said he would not be “in the shake-up” to retain his seat in that constituency, while junior minister Ossian Smyth looks at risk of losing his seat in Dun Laoghaire.

Junior minister Joe O’Brien is expected to lose his seat in Dublin Fingal, Neasa Hourigan is at risk in Dublin Central, while Wicklow’s Steven Matthews garnered just 4% of first preferences.

Former Green Party leader Eamon Ryan, who announced his retirement from frontline politics in June, said his party had not had a good day.

Arriving at the count centre at the RDS in Dublin, the outgoing environment minister told reporters: “If you don’t get elected you accept that, but you come back stronger and you learn lessons, and we’ve done that in the past and we will do that again.”

He added: “No matter what the results today there will be a strong Green Party in Ireland, we have deep roots in the community and it’s a very distinct political philosophy and I think there is still space for that in Irish politics, for sure.”

Mr Ryan said he did not believe his decision to retire, and the timing of his announcement, had affected the party’s showing.

“Unfortunately – and this is just one of those days – we didn’t get the number of votes,” he said.

He added: “We’ll look back and see what are the lessons, and what can we learn and what can we do differently.

“It’s just one of those days when we didn’t have a good day.