The Irish general election of 1981 was held on 11 June 1981, three weeks after the dissolution of the Dáil on 21 May. The newly elected 166 members of the 22nd Dáil assembled at Leinster House on 30 June when a new Taoiseach and government were appointed.

The general election took place in 41 parliamentary constituencies throughout Ireland for 166 seats in the lower house of parliament, Dáil Éireann. The number of seats in the Dáil was increased by 18 from 148 to 166.

Contents 1 Campaign 2 Result 3 First time TDs 4 Outgoing TDs 5 See also 6 References

[edit] Campaign

The general election of 1981 was the first one of five during the 1980s. The election also saw three new leaders of the three main parties fight their first general election. Charles Haughey had become Taoiseach and leader of Fianna Fáil at the end of 1979, Garret FitzGerald was the new leader of Fine Gael and Frank Cluskey was in charge of the Labour Party.

Charles Haughey and Fianna Fáil seemed extremely popular with the electorate. He had wanted to call the general election for early in the year, however a series of events led to the postponement of the election until the summer. By that stage much of the earlier optimism in the party had filtered out. The party still offered a very attractive manifesto, promising the electorate more spending programmes. Fine Gael also put forward a series of tax-cutting plans. Both the main parties policies seemed completely unrealistic, particularly since the national debt of the country was spiralling out of control.

[edit] Result

22nd Irish general election – 11 June 1981^[1][2]

Party		Leader	Seats	±	% of seats	First Pref votes	% FPv	±%
	Fianna Fáil	Charles Haughey	77	–7	46.3		45.3	–5.3
	Fine Gael	Garret FitzGerald	65	+22	39.2		36.5	+5.9
	Labour Party	Frank Cluskey	15	–1	9.0		9.9	–1.7
	Anti H-Block	None	2	+2	1.2		3.1	New
	Sinn Féin (Workers Party)	Tomás Mac Giolla	1	+1	0.6		1.7	New
	Socialist Labour Party	Noel Browne	1	+1	0.6			New
	Independent	N/A	4	±0	2.4
	Ceann Comhairle	N/A	1	N/A	0.6	N/A	N/A	N/A
Total			166	+18	100		100	—

• Fine Gael–Labour Party minority government formed.

When the votes were counted the result was inconclusive. Fianna Fáil lost seats as a result of sympathy to the Anti H-Block candidates and the attractive tax proposals of Fine Gael. It was the worst performance for Fianna Fáil in twenty years. Meanwhile, Labour Party leader Frank Cluskey lost his seat, necessitating a leadership change with Michael O'Leary succeeding Cluskey. A Fine Gael–Labour Party coalition government came to power with Garret FitzGerald becoming Taoiseach.

[edit] First time TDs

A total of 50 TDs were elected for the first time:

[edit] Outgoing TDs

• Kit Ahern (Lost seat)
• Luke Belton (Lost seat)
• Mark Clinton (Retired)
• Frank Cluskey (Lost seat)
• Barry Cogan (Lost seat)
• Liam Cosgrave (Retired)
• Paddy Donegan (Retired)
• Michael Herbert (Retired)
• Jimmy Leonard (Lost seat)
• Jack Lynch (Retired)
• Timothy Killeen (Lost seat)
• John Mannion, Jnr (Retired)

[edit] See also

• Members of the 22nd Dáil
• Government of the 22nd Dáil
• Ministers of State of the 22nd Dáil

[edit] References

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