Winners And Losers In The 2016 Irish General Election

With all but a handful of seats left to be declared the Irish electorate have made their views known in the Irish General Election 2016. While no party won the election outright, Fine Gael, the senior partner in Ireland’s present coalition government have most certainly lost it. The winners are Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin, Anti-Austerity Alliance–People Before Profit and some Independents. However, there is no overall majority for any Party. The seats declared at the present time for the three main Parties give Fine Gael 49 seats in Dáil Éireann, Fianna Fáil 43, Sinn Féin 22. There was also success for The Anti-Austerity Alliance–People Before Profit who have 5 seats and a number of independents have been elected. 

Labour, seen as the big losers in this election are down to 6 seats which is a loss of twenty-seven deputies. A catastrophic election for them but a battering that they thoroughly deserved. Labour had been elected in 2011 after a historic economic crash. No sooner had they got to power as a coalition partner with Fine Gael a budget was unveiled announcing reductions in child benefit and an increase in student fees. Breaking two of its key election promises and making it clear to voters that Labour was the party that had turned its back on those who elected it.

As for Fine Gael in this election they have sunk to 25% of the national vote and forty-nine TD’s, losing some nineteen deputies. The brutal austerity policies of the FG-Lab government was not forgiven by many people. They continued a policy of inflicting the burden of the pain of a financial crisis on those least able to bear it. The people of Ireland have been forced to pay through the nose for many years following recession after 2008 and the end of the so called "Celtic Tiger". The unfair policies imposed by the previous Fianna Fáil - Green Party coalition were followed in increased harshness by the present Fine Gael - Labour Party government. They forced the imposition of unfair taxation upon the ordinary people of Ireland to pay for a financial crisis that was not of their making.

Fianna Fáil has made significant gains in this election, however, they were coming from a  very low position having suffered its worst ever election in 2011 to its second ever worse performance in this years general election. After all it was them that placed Ireland in the hands of the Troika, an undemocratic body made up of the European Commission, European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund after the 2008 financial crash. Nevertheless, the party has now increased its representation from twenty-one seats in Dáil Éireann to forty-three at the time  of writing. The issue though remains, as with Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil remains attached to the same policies that led to the rise and catastrophic fall of the Celtic Tiger economy and the false solutions of austerity that followed. 

It is then no wonder that Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams has now said the "current sham fight" between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil has nothing to do with real issues. He went on to say "The people who were homeless on Friday will remain homeless under Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. Today 429 patients languish on trolleys in our hospitals and this will continued under Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. "Sinn Féin made clear that we will not prop up the parties that created and sustained the crisis. That is the mandate we received. We will continue to consult with others, including those aligned to the right2change platform, on the way forward".

Sinn Féin, although it would have sought to have done better, has recorded its best ever performance in a Dáil election in modern times. This is despite a very hostile media campaign against them. It has increased from fourteen seats 9.9% of the vote to twenty-two seats on 14%. It demonstrates a continued rise in popularity and places Sinn Féin in a strong position to take full advantage of any formal or informal agreements by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil in the next government of Ireland.  However, the situation remains unclear in regard to what is next in regard to who will form the next Irish government. (Election figures as of 17.46 on 29 February 2016).