Last night's Leaders Debate on RTÉ did not really show any clear winner, so we will have to resort to different means to try and gauge any advantage gained by the debate - Twitter.

Researchers from the Insight Centre for Data Analytics have been crunching the Twitter numbers as part of their Insight4Elections data analysis project. One participant won the night in the popularity stakes at least, gathering almost 1,500 new Twitter followers, Social Democrats Stephen Donnelly.

Who got the approval of Twitter last night?

1. Stephen Donnelly – +1457 followers

2. Richard Boyd Barrett - +555 followers

3. Gerry Adams – +308 followers

4. Lucinda Creighton - +181 followers

5. Micheal Martin - +157 followers

6. Enda Kenny - +125 followers

7. Joan Burton – +105 followers

How did the deputy leaders fare in their TV3 debate?

1. Mary Lou McDonald - +104 followers

2. Alan Kelly - +31 followers

3. Barry Cowen - +10 followers

4. James Reilly - +8 followers

Which parties have people been following in the past 24 hours?

1. Social Democrats - +424 followers

2. Sinn Fein - +165 followers

3. Fianna Fail – +129 followers

4. Green Party - +126 followers

5. Renua - +114 followers

6. Fine Gael - +113 followers

7. Labour - +69 followers

8. People Before Profit - +60 followers

Insight4Elections is a publicly available web tool where users can crunch the numbers for themselves. You can find the link here. http://insight4news.ucd.ie/