This was the country's first ever General Election to include gender quotas - meaning parties had to ensure one in three of their candidates were female.

Despite Fianna Fáil's initial concerns about the rules, it is set to reap the greatest benefits.

The party had no female TDs in the last Dáil and was then dealt a further blow when its Senator Averil Power announced she was leaving the party and would run in the General Election as an Independent.

In Galway East, Cllr Anne Rabbitte was added to the Fianna Fáil ticket to fulfill the gender quota and succeeded in being elected.

Huge congratulations to @AnneRabbitte, our new #gwy East TD #SupportLocal #GE16 pic.twitter.com/6YYfhEChRz

— Conor O' Meara (@comportumna) February 28, 2016

However in other constituencies where the gender quota rules were applied, such as Dublin Central, the female Fianna Fáil candidates were unsuccessful.

There were 86 female candidates in the 2011 general election compared to 163 in this election.

As it stands there are already 29 women elected to the Dáil, two more than were in the last Dáil. This represents nearly a quarter of the total TDs elected so far.

There are plenty of high-profile females who are new to the Dáil, including Independent Senator Katherine Zappone and Green Party Deputy Leader Catherine Martin.

However this was balanced by a number of high-profile female TDs losing their seats including Labour's Kathleen Lynch, Anne Ferris, Ann Phelan, Joanna Tuffy and Ciara Conway. Fine Gael's Aine Collins and Gabrielle McFadden were unsuccessful and Renua leader Lucinda Creighton also lost her seat.

Women for Election co-founder Michelle O'Donnell Keating has refuted any claims of tokenism: