PD reaction: Tom Parlon was predicting last night that his party would be back in government again despite the loss of so many PD seats including his own, here at the Laois-Offaly count centre in Birr.
Although he refused to concede defeat, the party's president just stopped short of stealing the Gerry Adams line that the PDs "had not gone away you know".
"Chances are we will have four seats and chances are that we will be in government again as in 1997. We have to examine our situation but it is very, very early days yet," he said.
Mr Parlon arrived at the Marian Hall in Birr shortly after 6pm where Fianna Fáil's Brian Cowen was busily clocking up what may be the highest first preference performance of anyone in the country.
At this, the slowest moving count in the State, tallymen from all parties were estimating that Mr Cowen would poll 19,000 votes, 7,000 over the quota here in this constituency.
While Mr Cowen put in a stunning performance, Mr Parlon conceded that he had lost votes "right, left and centre" in what he described as a "difficult day" which saw the jagged see-saw of Irish politics wrestle his seat away from him and back to Charlie Flanagan.
"Charlie had a very black day five years ago and I am having a difficult one today. I got 9,000 the last time and he is having a good day today," said Mr Parlon, the former leader of the Irish Farmers' Association.
"Things are not looking good but we are not conceding anything at this juncture in time until all the votes are counted," he said.
"Brian Cowen's hovering up of the massive, massive vote that he got has certainly been a factor as has the resurgence of Fine Gael in the constituency and there seems to be a move against the smaller parties in favour of the bigger parties," he said.
He said Mr Cowen had a very formidable election and went forward to defend his party when no one else would. "I have lost votes, right left and centre. I cannot say they were IFA votes or Laois votes and it will be difficult to analyse where or why I lost them."
He said the PDs had taken a lot of flak because of the sensitivity of the ministries they had held, and he would have felt the heat from prison officers and nurses.
However, Mr Parlon said despite his setback and those of his colleagues, the PDs were still a strong party and had a proven record in government which they wanted to continue.
All day it was clear that Fianna Fáil would retain its three seats, Mr Cowen, Sean Fleming and John Moloney, and that Mr Flanagan would be elected before party colleague, Olwyn Enright, who would fill the last seat.