Turnout: 65.10%
About this election
The Irish general election of 26 February 2016 elected the 32nd Dáil and ended the landslide majority that Fine Gael and Labour had won at the height of the financial crisis in 2011. Fine Gael, led by Taoiseach Enda Kenny, remained the largest party but slumped to 25.52% of the first-preference vote and 50 of the 158 seats, while its coalition partner Labour was almost wiped out, falling to 6.61% and just 7 seats. Fianna Fáil, written off after its 2011 collapse, recovered strongly under Micheál Martin to 24.35% and 44 seats. Sinn Féin advanced to 13.85% and 23 seats, and a large bloc of independents and smaller parties took the rest. Turnout was 65.1%.
Members of Dáil Éireann (TDs) are elected by the single transferable vote (PR-STV) in multi-seat constituencies returning three, four or five members — 40 constituencies in 2016. Voters rank candidates in order of preference (1, 2, 3…); a candidate is elected on reaching a quota, and surpluses and the votes of eliminated candidates are transferred according to later preferences. The system is highly proportional and candidate-centred, rewards local profile and transfer-friendliness, and means that the share of first-preference votes does not translate directly into seats. Because each constituency elects several members of different parties, this page presents the national first-preference shares and the resulting composition of the Dáil rather than a single winner-by-region map.
The Fine Gael–Labour government campaigned on its stewardship of the economic recovery after the 2010 EU–IMF bailout, under the slogan "Keep the Recovery Going". But the message fell flat with voters who felt the recovery had not reached them, and who were angry about austerity, the new water charges, the housing and homelessness crisis and pressure on the health service. Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin both campaigned against austerity from opposite ends of the spectrum, while a wave of independents capitalised on disillusionment with the established parties.
The combined Fine Gael–Labour total fell far short of a majority, and no two-party government was possible. The Anti-Austerity Alliance–People Before Profit won about 3.94% and 6 seats, the new Social Democrats 3 seats, the Greens returned with 2, and Renua, founded by Lucinda Creighton, failed to win any. The most striking feature was the success of independents and small groups, who together took more than a fifth of the seats — a fragmentation that made government formation unusually difficult.
It took ten weeks of negotiation before Enda Kenny was re-elected Taoiseach in May 2016 at the head of a Fine Gael minority government of independents, sustained by an unprecedented "confidence and supply" agreement under which Fianna Fáil agreed to abstain on key votes. The arrangement — two old civil-war rivals cooperating at arm's length — kept the government in office for the bulk of the term and marked the definitive end of single-party or two-party majority government in Ireland. Kenny stood down as Fine Gael leader in 2017 and was succeeded as Taoiseach by Leo Varadkar.
Houses of the Oireachtas / Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage — oireachtas.ie.
Compiled and reviewed by Bartłomiej Paruzel, Election Data Analyst, from official results. See our data methodology.