Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index

Irish general election, 2002

The election for the 29th Dáil was held on 17 May 2002. The results were:

Party Leader Seats Loss/Gain Dáil Seats (%)
Fianna Fáil Bertie Ahern 80 + 3 48.2
Fine Gael Michael Noonan 31 - 23 18.7
Labour Ruairí Quinn 21 + 0 12.7
Progressive Democrats Mary Harney 8 + 4 4.8
Independents - 14 + 7 8.4
Green Party Trevor Sargent 6 + 4 3.6
Sinn Féin Gerry Adams 5 + 4 3.0
Socialist Party Joe Higgins 1 + 1 0.6

The Irish general election of 2002 entered the history books for five facts:

  1. The re-election of the Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrat government, the first occasion since 1969 when an Irish government won re-election;
  2. The meltdown in Fine Gael support, which saw the main opposition party drop from 54 to 31 seats, lose all but two seats in Dublin, and see the defeat of almost all its Front Bench, including its Deputy Leader, Jim Mitchell;
  3. The electoral success of Sinn Féin, which increased its seat number from 1 to 5;
  4. The failure of the Irish Labour Party, contrary to all expectations, to increase its seat total;
  5. The election of a large number of independent candidates to Dáil Éireann.

In the immediate aftermath of the election, Fine Gael leader Michael Noonan announced his resignation from the leadership. All other potential leaders having lost their seat, Enda Kenny was chosen as the new leader.

See also: