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144 seats inDáil Éireann[a] 73 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | 75.1% 4.5pp | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Percentage of seats gained by each of the three major parties, and number of seats gained by smaller parties and independents. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The1965 Irish general election to the18th Dáil was held on Wednesday, 7 April, following thedissolution of the17th Dáil on 18 March byPresidentÉamon de Valera on the request ofTaoiseachSeán Lemass. The general election took place in 38Dáil constituencies throughout Ireland for 144 seats inDáil Éireann, the house of representatives of theOireachtas. The governingFianna Fáil saw a slight increase, though did not obtain a majority.
The 18th Dáil met atLeinster House on 21 April to nominate the Taoiseach for appointment by the president and to approve the appointment of a newgovernment of Ireland. Lemass was re-appointed Taoiseach, forming the11th government of Ireland, a single-party minorityFianna Fáil government.
The general election of 1965 followed the failure of the governingFianna Fáil to gain a seat in a by-election on 10 March 1965. The success ofEileen Desmond of theLabour Party inCork Mid in holding a seat previously held by her husbandDan Desmond, led to an unacceptable mathematical situation with regard to the government's majority. On 18 March, the Taoiseach,Seán Lemass dissolved the Dáil and the campaign began in earnest.
Fianna Fáil ran its campaign on its record in government. Over the last number of years, the economy had seen a huge improvement and the party played up on its record in government. The party also played up heavily on the personality of the party leader with the slogan "Let Lemass Lead On".Fine Gael put forward a comprehensive manifesto, which included the establishment of a government department concerned with economic planning. However, the older, conservative members of the party did not warm to the new turn the party was taking.
This was the first Irish general election to be covered on television by state broadcasterRTÉ, which had formed on 31 December 1961.Election Newsroom was broadcast live onTelefís Éireann from their Donnybrook studios in Dublin, presented by John O'Donoghue with analysis provided by John Healy (The Irish Times), John O'Sullivan (The Cork Examiner),Garret FitzGerald and Professor Basil Chubb. Cameras were present in four count centres: Bolton Street (Dublin), Wexford, Cork and Monaghan. The GPO provided direct links as results were announced.Raidió Éireann provided special coverage from 3 pm on the day of the count due to the coverage on Telefís Éireann. It was a new approach to election coverage on the state's radio service, which began broadcasting in 1926.[3]
| Election to the 18th Dáil – 7 April 1965[4][5][6][7] | ||||||||
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| Party | Leader | Seats | ± | % of seats | First pref. votes | % FPv | ±% | |
| Fianna Fáil | Seán Lemass | 72 | +2 | 50.0 | 597,414 | 47.7 | +3.9 | |
| Fine Gael | James Dillon | 47 | 0 | 32.6 | 427,081 | 34.1 | +2.1 | |
| Labour | Brendan Corish | 22[a] | +6 | 15.3 | 192,740 | 15.4 | +3.8 | |
| Clann na Poblachta | Seán MacBride[b] | 1 | 0 | 0.7 | 9,427 | 0.8 | –0.3 | |
| Irish Workers' Party | Michael O'Riordan | 0 | 0 | 0 | 183 | 0.0 | 0 | |
| Independent | N/A | 2 | –4 | 1.4 | 26,277 | 2.1 | –3.5 | |
| Spoilt votes | 11,544 | — | — | |||||
| Total | 144 | 0 | 100 | 1,264,666 | 100 | — | ||
| Electorate/Turnout | 1,683,019 | 75.1% | — | |||||
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Fianna Fáil formed the11th Government of Ireland, a single-party government led bySeán Lemass as Taoiseach. Lemass had been in office since 1959.
James Dillon resigned as leader of Fine Gael immediately after the result was announced.
In November 1966, Lemass resigned as Fianna Fáil leader and Taoiseach, and was succeeded in both positions byJack Lynch, who formed the12th Government of Ireland.
The Dáil election was followed by an election to the11th Seanad.
