Election to the 23rd Dail
February 1982 Irish general election
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Turnout
| 73.8%
2.4
pp
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Election results and first-preference votes in each constituency.
Number of seats gained by each party in each constituency.
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The
February 1982 Irish general election
to the
23rd Dail
was held on Thursday, 18 February, three weeks after the
dissolution
of the
22nd Dail
on 27 January by
President
Patrick Hillery
on the request of
Taoiseach
Garret FitzGerald
on the defeat of the government's budget. The general election took place in 41
Dail constituencies
throughout Ireland for 166 seats in
Dail Eireann
, the house of representatives of the
Oireachtas
.
The 23rd Dail met at
Leinster House
on 9 March to nominate the Taoiseach for appointment by the president and to approve the appointment of a new
government of Ireland
.
Charles Haughey
was appointed Taoiseach, forming the
18th Government of Ireland
, a minority single-party
Fianna Fail
government.
Campaign
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]
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 Dala
, and
Joe Sherlock
of
Sinn Fein The Workers' Party
. The
Taoiseach
Garret FitzGerald
immediately sought a dissolution of the Dail. However, while he was with President
Patrick Hillery
at
Aras an Uachtarain
, a number of
Fianna Fail
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 the Dail would have an opportunity to nominate a new Taoiseach ? with Haughey hoping to re-enter office. 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.
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 Fail 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.
Result
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Election to the 23rd Dail
– 18 February 1982
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
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Party
|
Leader
|
Seats
|
±
|
% of
seats
|
First pref.
votes
|
% FPv
|
±%
|
|
Fianna Fail
|
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 Fein The Workers' Party
|
Tomas Mac Giolla
|
3
|
+2
|
1.8
|
38,088
|
2.3
|
+0.6
|
|
Sinn Fein
|
Ruairi O Bradaigh
|
0
|
New
|
0
|
16,894
|
1.0
|
?
|
|
Irish Republican Socialist
|
|
0
|
New
|
0
|
2,716
|
0.2
|
?
|
|
Communist
|
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
462
|
0.0
|
0
|
|
Independent
|
N/A
|
4
[a]
|
0
|
2.4
|
46,059
|
2.8
|
?0.9
|
Spoilt votes
|
14,367
|
?
|
?
|
Total
|
166
[a]
|
0
|
100
|
1,678,500
|
100
|
?
|
Electorate/Turnout
|
2,275,450
|
73.8%
|
?
|
Independents include
Independent Fianna Fail
(11,732 votes, 1 seat).
Voting summary
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First preference vote
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|
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Fianna Fail
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47.26%
|
Fine Gael
|
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37.30%
|
Labour
|
|
9.12%
|
Sinn Fein (Workers' Party)
|
|
2.29%
|
Sinn Fein
|
|
1.01%
|
Others
|
|
0.19%
|
Independent
|
|
2.77%
|
|
Seats summary
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Dail seats
|
|
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Fianna Fail
|
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48.80%
|
Fine Gael
|
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37.95%
|
Labour
|
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9.04%
|
Sinn Fein (Workers' Party)
|
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1.81%
|
Independent
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2.41%
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Government formation
[
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Fianna Fail formed the
18th Government of Ireland
, a minority government.
Fianna Fail 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 Fail
TD
Neil Blaney
and the three Sinn Fein the Workers' Party deputies, and was appointed Taoiseach.
Dail membership changes
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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.
See also
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Notes
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- ^
a
b
c
Including
John O'Connell
(Ind), returned automatically for
Dublin South-Central
as outgoing
Ceann Comhairle
, under Art. 16.6 of the Constitution and the Electoral Act 1963, as amended.
[1]
[2]
- ^
Doherty died in August 1981 but no by-election had been called by the time of the general election.
References
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External links
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Further reading
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]