Irish general election, 2016

Irish general election, 2016

26 February 2016
157 of 158 seats in Dáil Éireann 80 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Turnout	65.1%
First party Second party Third party   170x170px 170x170px 170x170px Leader Enda Kenny Micheál Martin Gerry Adams Party Fine Gael Fianna Fáil Sinn Féin Leader since 2 June 2002 26 January 2011 13 November 1983 Leader's seat Mayo Cork South-Central Louth Last election 76 seats, 36.1% 20 seats, 17.4% 14 seats, 9.9% Seats before 66 21 14 Seats won 50 44 23 Seat change 16 23 9 Popular vote 544,140 519,356 295,319 Percentage 25.5% 24.3% 13.8% Swing 10.6 pp 6.9 pp 3.9 pp   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   170x170px Leader Joan Burton — — Party Labour Party AAA–PBP Independents 4 Change Leader since 4 July 2014 — — Leader's seat Dublin West — — Last election 37 seats, 19.4% 4 seats, 2.2% New party Seats before 33 4 4 Seats won 7 6 4 Seat change 26 2 0 Popular vote 140,898 84,168 31,365 Percentage 6.6% 3.9% 1.5% Swing 12.8 pp 1.7 pp New party   Seventh party Eighth party Ninth party   170x170px Leader Stephen Donnelly Catherine Murphy Róisín Shortall Eamon Ryan Lucinda Creighton Party Social Democrats Green Party Renua Ireland Leader since 15 July 2015 27 May 2011 13 March 2015 Leader's seat Wicklow Kildare North Dublin North-West Dublin Bay South Dublin Bay South (defeated) Last election New party 0 seats, 1.8% New party Seats before 3 0 3 Seats won 3 2 0 Seat change 0 2 3 Popular vote 64,094 57,999 46,552 Percentage 3.0% 2.7% 2.2% Swing New party 0.9 pp New party
400px Percentage of seats gained by each of the five biggest parties, and number of seats gained by smaller parties and independents.
Taoiseach before election Enda Kenny Fine Gael Elected Taoiseach Enda Kenny Fine Gael

The Irish general election of 2016 took place on 26 February to elect 157 Teachtaí Dála (TDs) across 40 constituencies to Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas, Ireland's parliament. The 31st Dáil was dissolved by President Michael D. Higgins on 3 February, at the request of Taoiseach Enda Kenny.

Following the election, Kenny's Fine Gael remained the largest party in the Dáil, albeit having lost 26 seats compared with the previous election. The main opposition party Fianna Fáil, which had suffered its worst-ever election result of 20 seats in 2011, increased its seats to 44. Sinn Féin was expected to make gains, encouraged by opinion polls placing it ahead of Fianna Fáil, and it became the third-most numerous party with 23 deputies. The Labour Party, which had been the junior party in coalition government with Fine Gael and which had returned its best-ever showing of 37 seats in 2011, fell to just seven deputies, its lowest-ever share of Dáil seats. Smaller parties and independent politicians made up the remaining 34 seats.

The members of the 32nd Dáil met on 10 March to elect a new Ceann Comhairle, the first to be elected by secret ballot, and Seán Ó Fearghaíl of Fianna Fáil was elected to succeed Seán Barrett of Fine Gael. Kenny formally resigned as Taoiseach that same day, but remained in office as a caretaker until a new government was formed. Kenny sought an agreement with Fianna Fáil to form a government, and negotiations continued through most of April. An agreement was finally reached for a Fine Gael-led minority government on 29 April, 63 days after the election, and the Dáil formally re-elected Kenny as Taoiseach on 6 May. Kenny is the first Taoiseach from Fine Gael to win re-election.

Following the introduction of gender quotas, a record 35 seats were filled by women, bringing the proportion of women in the Dáil to 22 percent, up from 15 percent after the previous general election.

Background

The outgoing government was a Fine Gael–Labour Party coalition led by Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Tánaiste Joan Burton. Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin, Anti-Austerity Alliance–People Before Profit, Renua Ireland, Social Democrats, Workers and Unemployed Action, and independent non-party TDs formed the opposition in the Dáil. The government was formed on 9 March 2011, the first day of the 31st Dáil elected on 25 February 2011.

Whereas the Constitution gives the Taoiseach authority to dissolve the Dáil, under electoral law the precise date of polling is specified by the Minister for the Environment, who was Alan Kelly of Labour. Electoral law required the 31st Dáil to be dissolved by 9 March 2016. Kenny rejected predictions in October 2015 that he would call an election in November to capitalise on rising Fine Gael support. In January 2016, media reported that Fine Gael and Labour respectively favoured Thursday 25 and Friday 26 February 2016 as the election date; Friday would facilitate voting by students registered to vote at their family home.

After a cabinet meeting on 2 February, Kenny announced that he would be seeking a dissolution the following day. At 09:30 on 3 February he formally told the Dáil this, and that the new Dáil would meet on 10 March; the Dáil was adjourned without statements from the opposition. At 09:58 while Kenny was en route to Áras an Uachtaráin to meet the President, the election date of 26 February was confirmed from his Twitter account. At 10:35 the President issued the proclamation dissolving the Dáil. Later that day, Minister Kelly signed the order setting the polling day. The writs of election are issued by the clerk of the Dáil.

New parties and alliances

A number of parties and political alliances were formed during the lifespan of the 31st Dáil in order to contest the election:

• On 14 March 2014, the Independents for Equality Movement was registered as a political party by non-party TDs in advance of the 2014 local elections. Founded by Wexford TD Mick Wallace, it was renamed Independents 4 Change in October 2015. By the time the 31st Dáil was dissolved it counted among its members Wallace, Joan Collins, Clare Daly and Tommy Broughan, but all remained listed on the Dáil register as independent members of the house. All four members as well as one other councillor entered the election as Independents 4 Change candidates.
• On 13 March 2015, Renua Ireland was founded by TDs and a Senator who had been expelled from the Fine Gael parliamentary party in 2013 for voting against the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill on anti-abortion grounds. Lucinda Creighton led this party into the election.
• On 30 March 2015, the Independent Alliance was formed by non-party TDs and founded by Shane Ross and Michael Fitzmaurice. It was not a political party, and stated that it would not impose a whip except where the group had agreed to support a government on confidence motions.
• On 15 July 2015, the Social Democrats were founded by Róisín Shortall, elected to the 31st Dáil as a Labour Party TD; Catherine Murphy, who was also a member of the Labour Party until 2003 but was elected to the 31st Dáil as an independent non-party TD, and Stephen Donnelly who was elected to the 31st Dáil as an independent non-party TD. All three entered the election as co-leaders of the Social Democrats.
• In August 2015, Right2Change was launched as a broad political campaigning platform based on the Right2Water campaign that had been ongoing since 2014 against the introduction of water charges in Ireland. Right2Change produced a document of policy principles for "a progressive Irish government" and promoted a vote transfer pact, to which several bodies subscribed in advance of the 2016 election, including Sinn Féin, the People Before Profit Alliance, Workers and Unemployed Action, Direct Democracy Ireland, the Communist Party of Ireland; the individual TDs Joan Collins, Clare Daly, Thomas Pringle, Tommy Broughan and Mick Wallace; and the trade unions Unite the Union, the Communication Workers Union, and Mandate.
• On 6 October 2015, the Anti-Austerity Alliance–People Before Profit were founded as a registered party, to serve as an electoral alliance of the Anti-Austerity Alliance and the People Before Profit Alliance. They had contested the 2011 general election as separate parties, as the Socialist Party and the People Before Profit Alliance respectively, under the joint platform of the United Left Alliance (which had included the Workers and Unemployed Action Group and left wing independent politicians).

Gender quotas

Part 6 of the Electoral (Amendment) (Political Funding) Act 2012 provides that parties will lose half of their state funding unless at least 30% of their candidates at the election are female and at least 30% are male. All parties except Direct Democracy Ireland fulfilled this condition. This contributed in part to the highest percentage of women elected to the Dáil; at 35 TDs, this was 22% of the 158 TDs, an increase from 15% at the previous general election.

Electoral system

Ireland uses proportional representation with a single transferable vote (PR–STV). The general election took place throughout the state to elect 158 members of Dáil Éireann, a reduction of 8 from the previous 166 members. This follows the passage of the Electoral (Amendment) (Dáil Constituencies) Act 2013. The Ceann Comhairle (speaker of the lower house of parliament) is automatically re-elected unless he opts to retire from the Dáil. The election was held in 40 parliamentary constituencies. Each multi-member constituency elects three, four or five Teachtaí Dála (Dáil deputies, lit. Assembly Deputies).

The closing date for nominations was 11 February 2016. A total of 551 candidates contested the election, slightly down from the 566 that took part in the 2011 general election, a record figure. The number of candidates for each party was: Fine Gael (88), Fianna Fáil (71), Sinn Féin (50), Green Party (40), Labour Party (36), Anti-Austerity Alliance–People Before Profit (31, of which 18 People Before Profit Alliance and 13 Anti-Austerity Alliance), Renua Ireland (26), Direct Democracy Ireland (19), Social Democrats (14), Independents 4 Change (5), Workers' Party (5), Catholic Democrats (3), Fís Nua (2), Irish Democratic Party (1), Communist Party of Ireland (1). Among the 159 independent politicians and others running without a party platform were 21 independents affiliated to the Independent Alliance, 19 independents affiliated to Right2Change, and the outgoing Workers and Unemployed Action TD Séamus Healy, who was nominated as a non-party candidate for this election. Voting took place between 07:00 and 22:00 (WET).

Islands off the coast of Donegal, Mayo, and Galway voted one day earlier. All resident Irish and UK citizens were eligible to be on the Dáil electoral register. The 2016–17 register was published on 1 February by the local authorities, who were responsible for maintaining it. Applications for the supplementary register for the general election closed on 9 February, with 30,185 names added.

Retiring incumbents

The following members of the 31st Dáil announced in advance of the poll that they would not be seeking re-election:

Constituency	Departing TD	Party
Cork East	Sandra McLellan		Sinn Féin
Donegal South-West	Dinny McGinley		Fine Gael
Dublin Mid-West	Robert Dowds		Labour Party
Dublin North-East	Seán Kenny		Labour Party
Dublin South	Olivia Mitchell		Fine Gael
Dublin South-Central	Michael Conaghan		Labour Party
Dublin South-East	Ruairi Quinn		Labour Party
Dublin South-West	Pat Rabbitte		Labour Party
Dublin West	Joe Higgins		Socialist Party
Dún Laoghaire	Eamon Gilmore		Labour Party
Galway East	Michael P. Kitt		Fianna Fáil
Galway West	Brian Walsh		Fine Gael
Kerry South	Tom Fleming		Independent
Kildare South	Jack Wall		Labour Party
Limerick	Dan Neville		Fine Gael
Louth	Séamus Kirk		Fianna Fáil
Roscommon–South Leitrim	Frank Feighan		Fine Gael
Sligo–North Leitrim	Michael Colreavy		Sinn Féin
Wexford	John Browne		Fianna Fáil
Wexford	Liam Twomey		Fine Gael

Campaign

Election posters in Cork South-Central

The campaign officially began after the dissolution of Dáil Éireann on 3 February 2016 and lasted until polling day on 26 February 2016. During the campaign, official election posters are permitted in locations which would otherwise constitute litter; some candidates were reported to have illegally erected posters too soon. The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland's moratorium on election coverage lasted from 14:00 on 25 February 2016 until polls had closed.

Party manifestos and slogans

Party/group	Manifesto (external link)	Other slogan(s)
Fine Gael	Let's Keep the Recovery Going	"Your hard work is working"
Labour Party	Standing Up for Ireland's Future	"Standing up for working families"
Fianna Fáil	An Ireland for All
Sinn Féin	Better with Sinn Féin
AAA–PBP	Common Principles: Radical Alternatives and Real Equality	"A voice for people power, share the wealth"
→AAA	Real Change not Spare Change
→PBP	Share the Wealth: An Alternative Vision for Ireland
Renua	Rewarding Work Rebuilding Trust
Social Democrats	Building a Better Future 2016–2026
Green Party	Think Ahead, Act Now
Independent Alliance	Charter for Government 2016
Workers' Party	Take a Step in a New Direction

Television debates

RTÉ set a minimum of three TDs for a party to be invited to its 15 February debate. The Green Party, which had no TDs (having lost them all in 2011), took an unsuccessful High Court case against the exclusion of its leader Eamon Ryan. An Irish language debate, moderated by Eimear Ní Chonaola was to be broadcast on TG4 on 17 February, but was cancelled due to the weak proficiency in that language of Adams and Burton. Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Labour) and Pearse Doherty (Sinn Féin) were suggested as fluent replacements, but Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael insisted that a leaders' debate should be confined to party leaders only. TG4 instead broadcast successive one-to-one interviews with each party's representative. There was also a "live audience discussion" on RTÉ Two on 21 February featuring Timmy Dooley (FF), Mary Lou McDonald (SF), Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Labour), Averil Power (non-party), Eamon Ryan (Greens), Leo Varadkar (FG), and Adrienne Wallace (AAA-PBP). The discussion was hosted by Keelin Shanley at Facebook's Dublin office and featured questions submitted via Facebook and Twitter. There was some controversy surrounding this debate as a representative of special needs parents said she was to appear to ask a question on waiting lists only to be told by RTÉ later that the topic would not be covered.

Irish general election debates, 2016
Date	Broadcaster	Moderator(s)	Participants —   Name  Participant    N  Party not invited							Notes
			AAA–PBP	Fianna Fáil	Fine Gael	Labour	Renua	Sinn Féin	Social Democrats
8 February	RTÉ	Claire Byrne	N	McGrath	Noonan	Howlin	N	Doherty	N	Finance spokespersons. 50 minutes.
11 February	TV3	Colette Fitzpatrick Pat Kenny	N	Martin	Kenny	Burton	N	Adams	N	Party leaders. 80 minutes.
15 February	RTÉ	Claire Byrne	Boyd Barrett	Martin	Kenny	Burton	Creighton	Adams	Donnelly	Party leaders. 115 minutes.
15 February	TV3	Mick Clifford	N	Cowen	Reilly	Kelly	N	McDonald	N	Deputy leaders. 60 minutes.
22 February	RTÉ	Claire Byrne	N	Kelleher	Varadkar	Lynch	N	Ó Caoláin	N	Health spokespersons. 60 minutes.
23 February	RTÉ	Miriam O'Callaghan	N	Martin	Kenny	Burton	N	Adams	N	Party leaders. 85 minutes.

Opinion polls

Main article: Opinion polling for the Irish general election, 2016

Record of Irish political opinion polls published in 2016. Multiple polls published on 16 January, 6 February and 21 February have been averaged.
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Results

See also: Members of the 32nd Dáil

File:Ireland2016actualpoll.png

350x350px

Counting of votes began at 09:00 UTC on Saturday 27 February 2016 and continued over the course of the weekend and into the following week, with the final two seats, in Longford–Westmeath, announced after multiple recounts at 05:30 UTC on Thursday 3 March.

It was Fine Gael's lowest number of seats since the 2002 general election, the election that led to Kenny becoming leader (the outgoing finance minister in 2016, Michael Noonan, had been Fine Gael's leader in 2002.) Fianna Fáil more than doubled the number of seats that they had coming into the election. Sinn Féin recorded their strongest showing under Adams to become the third party. Labour's vote collapse meant that not until the Longford–Westmeath result did they reach the seven-seat threshold to qualify as a parliamentary group with full speaking rights under current Dail rules.

Party	Fine Gael	Fianna Fáil	Sinn Féin	Labour Party	AAA–PBP	Independents 4 Change	Social Democrats	Green Party
Leader	Enda Kenny	Micheál Martin	Gerry Adams	Joan Burton	None	None	Stephen Donnelly Catherine Murphy Róisín Shortall	Eamon Ryan
Votes,1st pref.	25.5%, 544,140	24.3%, 519,356	13.8%, 295,319	6.6%, 140,898	3.9%, 84,168	1.5%, 31,365	3.0%, 64,094	2.7%, 57,999
Seats	50 (31.5%)	44 (28%)	23 (14.5%)	7 (4.5%)	6 (4%)	4 (2.5%)	3 (2%)	2 (1%)

↓

50	44	23	19	7	6	4	3	2
Fine Gael	Fianna Fáil	Sinn Féin	Inds	Lab	AAA PBP

File:Irish general election results 26-02-16.svg

Graphical illustration of elected deputies. Note that this is not the official seating plan.

  AAA-PBP: 6 seats

  Independents 4 Change: 4 seats

  Sinn Féin: 23 seats

  Social Democrats: 3 seats

  Green Party: 2 seats

  Labour Party: 7 seats

  Fianna Fáil: 44 seats

  Fine Gael: 50 seats

  Independent: 19 seats

First preference vote share of different parties in the election.

  Fine Gael (25.5%)

  Fianna Fáil (24.3%)

  Sinn Féin (13.8%)

  Labour Party (6.6%)

  AAA-PBP (3.9%)

  Social Democrats (3.0%)

  Green Party (2.7%)

  Renua Ireland (2.2%)

  Independents 4 Change (1.5%)

  Other (16.5%)

Summary of 26 February 2016 Dáil Éireann election results

Party		Leader	First Pref votes	% FPv	Swing%	Candidates	Elected 2011	Outgoing	Elected 2016	Change	% of seats
	Fine Gael	Enda Kenny	544,140	25.5	10.6	88	76	66	49	27	31.6
	Fianna Fáil	Micheál Martin	519,356	24.3	6.9	71	19	21	44	25	27.8
	Sinn Féin	Gerry Adams	295,319	13.8	3.9	50	14	14	23	9	14.6
	Labour Party	Joan Burton	140,898	6.6	12.8	36	37	33	7	30	4.4
	AAA–PBP	None	84,168	3.9	1.7	31	4	4	6	2	3.8
	Independents 4 Change	None	31,365	1.5	1.5	5	N/A	4	4	4	2.5
	Social Democrats	Catherine Murphy Róisín Shortall Stephen Donnelly	64,094	3.0	3.0	14	N/A	3	3	3	1.9
	Green Party	Eamon Ryan	57,999	2.7	0.9	40	0	0	2	2	1.3
	Renua Ireland	Lucinda Creighton	46,552	2.2	2.2	26	N/A	3	0	0	0
	Direct Democracy	Pat Greene	6,481	0.3	0.3	19	N/A	0	0	0	0
	Workers' Party	Michael Donnelly	3,242	0.2	<0.05	5	0	0	0	0	0
	Catholic Democrats	Nora Bennis	2,013	0.1	0.1	3	0	0	0	0	0
	Fís Nua	None	1,224	0.1	<0.05	2	0	0	0	0	0
	Irish Democratic Party	Ken Smollen	971	<0.05	<0.05	1	N/A	0	0	0	0
	Communist Party	Lynda Walker	185	<0.05	<0.05	1	0	0	0	0	0
	Identity Ireland	Peter O'Loughlin	183	<0.05	<0.05	1	N/A	0	0	0	0
	Independent Alliance	None	88,930	4.2	4.2	21	N/A	5	6	6	3.8
	Independent	—	249,285	11.7	1.3	136	14	10	13	1	8.2
	Ceann Comhairle	Seán Barrett	N/A	N/A	N/A	1	1	1	1	0	0.6
Total			2,136,405	100%	—	552	166	165	158	8	100%

TDs who lost their seats

Party		Seats lost	Name	Constituency	Other offices held	Year elected
	Fine Gael	21	James Bannon	Longford–Westmeath		2007
			Tom Barry	Cork East		2011
			Ray Butler	Meath West		2011
			Jerry Buttimer	Cork South-Central		2011
			Paudie Coffey	Waterford	Minister of State for Housing, Planning and Co-ordination of the Construction 2020 Strategy	2011
			Áine Collins	Cork North-West		2011
			Paul Connaughton, Jnr	Galway East		2011
			Noel Coonan	Tipperary		2007
			Jimmy Deenihan	Kerry	Minister of State for the Diaspora	1987
			Noel Harrington	Cork South-West		2011
			Tom Hayes	Tipperary		2001
			Derek Keating	Dublin Mid-West		2011
			Anthony Lawlor	Kildare North		2011
			Gabrielle McFadden	Longford–Westmeath		2014
			Michelle Mulherin	Mayo		2011
			Kieran O'Donnell	Limerick City		2007
			John O'Mahony	Galway West		2007
			Joe O'Reilly	Cavan–Monaghan		2011
			John Perry	Sligo–Leitrim		1997
			James Reilly	Dublin Fingal	Minister for Children and Youth Affairs	2007
			Alan Shatter	Dublin South		1981
	Labour	19	Eric Byrne	Dublin South-Central		1989
			Ciara Conway	Waterford		2011
			Joe Costello	Dublin Central		1992
			Anne Ferris	Wicklow		2011
			Dominic Hannigan	Meath East		2011
			Kevin Humphreys	Dublin Bay South	Minister of State for Employment, Community and Social Support	2011
			Ciarán Lynch	Cork South-Central		2007
			Kathleen Lynch	Cork North-Central	Minister of State for Primary Care, Mental Health and Disability	1994
			John Lyons	Dublin North-West		2011
			Michael McCarthy	Cork South-West		2011
			Michael McNamara	Clare		2011
			Ged Nash	Louth	Minister of State for Business and Employment	2011
			Derek Nolan	Galway West		2011
			Aodhán Ó Ríordáin	Dublin Bay North	Minister of State for New Communities, Culture and Equality	2011
			Ann Phelan	Carlow–Kilkenny		2011
			Arthur Spring	Kerry		2011
			Emmet Stagg	Kildare North		1987
			Joanna Tuffy	Dublin Mid-West		2007
			Alex White	Dublin Rathdown	Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources	2011
	Renua	3	Lucinda Creighton	Dublin Bay South		2007
			Terence Flanagan	Dublin Bay North		2007
			Billy Timmins	Wicklow		1997
	Fianna Fáil	1	Colm Keaveney	Galway East		2011
	Sinn Féin	1	Pádraig Mac Lochlainn	Donegal		2011
	Independent	3	Seán Conlan	Cavan–Monaghan		2011
			Eamonn Maloney	Dublin South-West		2011
			Peter Mathews	Dublin Rathdown		2011
Total		48	—	—	—	—

Government formation

Main article: 2016 Irish government formation

Enda Kenny immediately conceded that the outgoing coalition government of Fine Gael and Labour would be unable to continue. This led to speculation of a possibility of a coalition between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, of a minority government, or of another general election later in 2016. Talks to form a government got underway in March.

On 29 April, after 63 days of negotiation, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil reached an agreement about a Fine Gael minority government.

External links

• Election 2016 news coverage at Raidió Teilifís Éireann
• Election 2016 news coverage at The Irish Times
• Election 2016 news coverage at the Irish Independent