Murphy hopeful of four seats for Social Democrats amid coalition talks

Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy said she hopes the party can win four seats in the general election amid expectation that the group will also form part of any government talks.

While Ms Murphy looked set to top the poll in Kildare North, her colleague, fellow Social Democrats co-leader Róisín Shortall, was on course to take the second seat in Dublin North West.

Elsewhere, the party's Wicklow candidate Jennifer Whitmore last night was still in the race for a seat in Wicklow, with the party hopeful that she could take third place. The party had originally put forward Stephen Donnelly as the Social Democrats candidate at the last general election and he got elected.

However, Mr Donnelly, who went to leave the Social Democrats and join Fianna Fáil, looked in trouble last night in the constituency and could lose out on being returned to the Dáil.

The Social Democrats ran a strong campaign in the packed constituency race in Wicklow and Ms Murphy said the party was hoping to make gains.

Elsewhere, the Social Democrats were still in the race in Dublin Central with candidate Gary Gannon. A first count yesterday evening put him on almost 3,000 first preference votes. While other candidates were still ahead, including Fianna Fáil's Mary Fitzpatrick, the distribution of a large surplus of thousands of votes from Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald to other candidates was expected to benefit Mr Gannon. Ms McDonald's extra votes were also expected to benefit the Green Party candidate Neasa Hourigan, who was set to battle it out with Mr Gannon for one of the final places in the four-seater.

Catherine Murphy admitted that it had been a difficult election for her party, which had been hoping to potentially win six or more seats.

“It looks like we're in the hunt for four additional seats over those two as realistic prospects. We would love to get all four of them and have that platform to build from.

"It was a tough election in the context of obviously there was a gale blowing for Sinn Féin and you can get lost in that so I think we're holding our own," she told Newstalk.

The Social Democrats had targetted housing and childcare as key issues with their promises. These included plans for a four-day working week and an extension of parental leave which would ensure parents could access paid leave for the first full year of a child's life.