2016 Irish general election

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.[8]

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.[9] Electoral law required the 31st Dáil to be dissolved by 9 March 2016.[10] Kenny rejected predictions in October 2015 that he would call an election in November to capitalise on rising Fine Gael support.[11] 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.[9][12][13]

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.[14] 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.[15] Later that day, Minister Kelly signed the order setting the polling day.[1] The writs of election are issued by the clerk of the Dáil.[16]

Constituencies for 2016 general election

Ireland uses proportional representation with a single transferable vote (PR–STV).[25] 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.[26] The election was held in 40 parliamentary constituencies.[27] Each multi-member constituency elects three, four or five Teachtaí Dála (Dáil deputies, lit. Assembly Deputies).[25]

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.[1][28][29][30] 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 candidates and others running without a party platform were 21 independents affiliated to the Independent Alliance, 19 independents affiliated to Right2Change, and the outgoing TD Séamus Healy, who was nominated as a non-party candidate for this election.[23][30][31] Voting took place between 07:00 and 22:00 (WET).[1]

Islands off the coast of Donegal, Mayo, and Galway voted one day earlier.[32] All resident Irish and British citizens were eligible to be on the Dáil electoral register.[1] 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,[1] with 30,185 names added.[33]

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

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.[54][55] The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland's moratorium on election coverage lasted from 14:00 on 25 February 2016 until polls had closed.[56][57]

Polling results for the 2016 Irish general election, compared to the actual result

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.[81][82]

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.) They performed especially poorly outside Dublin, dropping from 59 seats to 36; in Dublin the party fared better, going from 17 to 14 for a net loss of only three. Indeed, Fine Gael became the largest party in the capital for the first time since November 1982, and won seats in every constituency in Dublin for the first time since 1987. Fianna Fáil more than doubled the number of seats that they had coming into the election. Having been without representation in Dublin since the death of Brian Lenihan in 2011, Fianna Fáil managed to win six seats in the capital this time. Sinn Féin recorded their strongest showing under Adams to become the third party, making gains in Leinster and in urban areas of Munster, mostly at the expense of the Labour Party. Labour won their lowest vote share since 1987, and their lowest share of seats ever. Despite speculation that she would lose her seat, Joan Burton became the first sitting Tánaiste to avoid defeat at a general election since Mary Harney in 2002.[83] 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 Dáil rules.[81]

The combined vote of 49.8 per cent for Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil was a record low for the two largest parties in the Dáil, eclipsing the previous record of 53.6 per cent set by Cumann na nGaedheal and Fianna Fáil in June 1927. It was the first time the vote for Ireland's two traditionally dominant parties had fallen below 50 per cent in a general election. Fine Gael became the largest party in the Dáil with just 25.5 per cent of the vote, the lowest percentage ever for a first party.

32nd Irish general election – 26 February 2016[84][85][86]
Party		Leader	First Preference Votes			Seats
			Votes	% FPv	Swing%	Candidates [87]	Elected 2011[87]	Outgoing [n 4]	Elected 2016[88]	Change [n 5]	% of seats
	Fine Gael	Enda Kenny	544,140	25.5	10.6	88	76	66[n 6]	49 / 158 (31%) [n 6]	27	31.6
	Fianna Fáil	Micheál Martin	519,356	24.3	6.9	71	19[n 6]	21	44 / 158 (28%)	25	27.8
	Sinn Féin	Gerry Adams	295,319	13.8	3.9	50	14	14	23 / 158 (15%)	9	14.6
	Labour	Joan Burton	140,898	6.6	12.8	36	37	33	7 / 158 (4%)	30	4.4
	AAA–PBP •People Before Profit Alliance •Anti-Austerity Alliance	None	84,168 42,174 41,994	3.9 2.0 1.9	1.7[n 2] 1.0 new	31 18 13	4[n 2] 2 new	4	6 / 158 (4%) 3 / 158 (2%) 3 / 158 (2%)	2 1 new	3.8 1.9 1.9
	Inds. 4 Change[n 7]	None	31,365	1.5	1.5[n 8]	5	N/A[n 9]	4	4 / 158 (3%)	4	2.5
	Social Democrats	Catherine Murphy Róisín Shortall Stephen Donnelly	64,094	3.0	3.0[n 8]	14	N/A[n 9]	3	3 / 158 (2%)	3	1.9
	Green	Eamon Ryan	57,999	2.7	0.9	40	0	0	2 / 158 (1%)	2	1.3
	Renua	Lucinda Creighton	46,552	2.2	2.2[n 8]	26	N/A[n 9]	3	0	0	0
	Direct Democracy	Pat Greene	6,481	0.3	0.3[n 8]	19	N/A[n 9]	0	0	0	0
	Workers' Party	Michael Donnelly	3,242	0.2	<0.05[n 10]	5	0	0	0	0	0
	Catholic Democrats	Nora Bennis	2,013	0.1	0.1[n 11]	3	0	0	0	0	0
	Fís Nua	None	1,224	0.1	<0.05[n 12]	2	0	0	0	0	0
	Irish Democratic	Ken Smollen	971	<0.05	<0.05[n 8]	1	N/A[n 9]	0	0	0	0
	Communist Party	Lynda Walker	185	<0.05	<0.05[n 13]	1	0	0	0	0	0
	Identity Ireland	Peter O'Loughlin	183	<0.05	<0.05[n 8]	1	N/A[n 9]	0	0	0	0
	Independent Alliance[n 7]	None	88,930[n 7]	4.2[n 7]	4.2[n 7][n 8]	21[n 7]	N/A[n 9]	5[n 7]	6 / 158 (4%)	6[n 7]	3.8[n 7]
	Independent[n 7]	—	249,285[n 7]	11.7[n 7]	1.3[n 7]	136[n 7]	14	10[n 7]	13 / 158 (8%)	1[n 7]	8.2[n 7]
	Spoilt votes	—	18,398	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
	Ceann Comhairle	Seán Barrett	N/A	N/A	N/A	1[n 6]	1	1[n 6]	1 / 158 (0.6%)	0	0.6
Total			2,151,293	100%	—	552[87][n 14]	166[n 15]	165[n 16]	158	8	100%
Total Electorate/Turnout: 3,305,110 (65.1%)

Enda Kenny immediately conceded that the outgoing coalition government of Fine Gael and Labour would be unable to continue. Fine Gael was 29 seats short of a majority, leading to speculation of a possibility of a grand coalition between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, of a minority government, or of another general election later in 2016.[124] Talks to form a government got underway in March.

On 29 April, after 63 days of negotiation and three failed votes for Taoiseach, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil reached an agreement about a Fine Gael minority government.[7] In the days following, Fine Gael negotiated a deal with Independent TDs on the formation of a minority coalition. Enda Kenny was re-elected Taoiseach on 6 May 2016.

• Barrett, David. "Irish general election 2016 report: whither the party system?." Irish Political Studies 31.3 (2016): 418-431.
• Culloty, Eileen, and Jane Suiter. "Journalism Norms and the Absence of Media Populism in the Irish General Election 2016." in Mediated Campaigns and Populism in Europe (Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2019) pp. 51-74.
• Kusche, Isabel. "Constituency orientation in Irish politics: video statements of the candidates in the Irish general election 2016." Irish Political Studies 32.3 (2017): 498-520.
• Little, Conor. "The Irish general election of February 2016: towards a new politics or an early election?." West European Politics 40.2 (2017): 479-488. online

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 2016 Dáil Éireann elections.

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