February 1982 Irish general election

The first general election of 1982 was caused by the sudden collapse of the Fine Gael–Labour Party coalition government when the budget was defeated. The Minister for Finance, John Bruton, attempted to put VAT on children's shoes. This measure was rejected by Jim Kemmy, a left-wing independent Teachta Dála, and Joe Sherlock of Sinn Féin the Workers' Party. The Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald immediately sought a dissolution of the Dáil. However, while he was with President Patrick Hillery at Áras an Uachtaráin, a number of Fianna Fáil members attempted to telephone the President, urging him not to grant a dissolution. If the President refused a dissolution, FitzGerald would have to resign and Fianna Fáil would be invited to form a government. The attempt to contact the President was highly unconstitutional, as the President can only take advice from the Taoiseach. In the event, a dissolution was granted and the general election campaign began in earnest.

The campaign was largely fought on economic issues. Spending cuts were a reality for whatever party won, but the scale of the cuts were played down by all parties. Fine Gael proposed to continue the policies that it had been implementing while in office. The Fianna Fáil leader Charles Haughey dismissed the need for budget cuts when the campaign first began; however, the need for realism soon became apparent, and the party adopted similar policies that involved budget cuts.

23rd Irish general election – 18 February 1982[1][2][3]
Party		Leader	Seats	±	% of seats	First Pref votes	% FPv	±%
	Fianna Fáil	Charles Haughey	81	+3	48.8	786,951	47.3	+2.0
	Fine Gael	Garret FitzGerald	63	–2	38.0	621,088	37.3	+0.8
	Labour	Michael O'Leary	15	0	9.0	151,875	9.1	–0.8
	Sinn Féin – The Workers' Party	Tomás Mac Giolla	3	+2	1.8	38,088	2.3	+0.6
	Sinn Féin	Ruairí Ó Brádaigh	0	New	0	16,894	1.0	–
	Irish Republican Socialist		0	New	0	2,716	0.2	–
	Communist Party		0	0	0	462	0.0	0
	Independent	N/A	4	0	2.4	46,059	2.8	–0.9
Spoilt votes						14,367	—	—
Total			166	0	100	1,678,500	100	—
Electorate/Turnout						2,275,450	73.8%	—

Independents include Independent Fianna Fáil (11,732 votes, 1 seat).

• Fianna Fáil minority government formed.

Fianna Fáil emerged as the largest party and looked most likely to form a government. However, internal divisions within the party threatened Charles Haughey's nomination for Taoiseach. In the end a leadership challenge did not take place, and Haughey was the party's nominee for Taoiseach. Haughey gained the support of the Independent Socialist TD Tony Gregory, the Independent Fianna Fáil TD Neil Blaney and the three Sinn Féin the Workers' Party deputies, and was appointed Taoiseach.

The following changes took place as a result of the election:

• 7 outgoing TDs retired
• 1 vacant seat at election time
• 157 outgoing TDs stood for re-election (also John O'Connell, the outgoing Ceann Comhairle, who was automatically returned)
  • 136 of those were re-elected
  • 21 failed to be re-elected
• 29 successor TDs were elected
  • 21 were elected for the first time
  • 8 had previously been TDs
• There was 1 successor female TD, who replaced 4 outgoing; thus the total decreased by 3 to 8.
• There were changes in 26 of 41 constituencies

Where more than one change took place in a constituency the concept of successor is an approximation for presentation only.

• Members of the 23rd Dáil
• Government of the 23rd Dáil

• February 1982 election: Party leaders' debate RTÉ archives