2002 Irish general election

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166 seats inDáil Éireann[a] 84 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	62.6% 3.3pp
First party Second party Third party   Leader Bertie Ahern Michael Noonan Ruairi Quinn Party Fianna Fáil Fine Gael Labour Leader since 19 December 1994 9 February 2001 November 1997 Leader's seat Dublin Central Limerick East Dublin South-East Last election 77 seats, 39.3% 54 seats, 27.9% 17 seats, 12.9% Seats won 81 31 21 Seat change 4 23 4[b] Popular vote 770,748 417,619 200,130 Percentage 41.5% 22.5% 10.8% Swing 2.2 pp 5.4 pp 2.1 pp   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Mary Harney Trevor Sargent Gerry Adams Party Progressive Democrats Green Sinn Féin Leader since 12 October 1993 6 October 2001 13 November 1983 Leader's seat Dublin South-West Dublin North N/A[c] Last election 4 seats, 4.7% 2 seats, 2.8% 1 seat, 2.6% Seats won 8 6 5 Seat change 4 4 4 Popular vote 73,628 71,470 121,020 Percentage 4.0% 3.8% 6.5% Swing 0.7 pp 1.0 pp 3.9 pp
Election results and first-preference votes in each constituency. Number of seats gained by each party in each constituency.
Taoiseach before election Bertie Ahern Fianna Fáil Taoiseach after election Bertie Ahern Fianna Fáil

The2002 Irish general election to the29th Dáil was held on Friday, 17 May, just over three weeks after thedissolution of the28th Dáil on Thursday, 25 April by PresidentMary McAleese, at the request of theTaoiseach,Bertie Ahern. The general election took place in 42Dáil constituencies throughout Ireland for 166 seats inDáil Éireann, the house of representatives of theOireachtas, with a revision of constituencies since the last election under theElectoral (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 1998. The outgoing minority Fianna Fáil–Progressive Democrat administration was returned with a majority of 10.

The 29th Dáil met atLeinster House on Thursday, 6 June tonominate the Taoiseach for appointment by the president and to approve the appointment of a newgovernment of Ireland.Bertie Ahern was re-appointed Taoiseach, forming the26th government of Ireland, a majoritycoalition government ofFianna Fáil and theProgressive Democrats.

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The general election was significant for a number of reasons:

• The election was considered a success forFianna Fáil, with the party coming within a handful of seats from achieving an overall majority (the nearest the country came to a single-party government since1987) and winning the most first-preference votes in every single Dáil constituency. The only high-profile loss was cabinet ministerMary O'Rourke losing her seat in Westmeath.
• The re-election of the Fianna Fáil–Progressive Democrats government, the first occasion since1969 that an Irish government won re-election.
• The meltdown inFine Gael support, which saw the main opposition party drop from 54 to 31 seats, and lose all but three seats inDublin.
• The failure of theLabour Party, contrary to all expectations, to increase its seat total. Later in the year,Ruairi Quinn stepped down as leader of the Labour Party. He was replaced byPat Rabbitte, who was one of fourDemocratic Left TDs who joined in a merger with Labour in 1999. The most high-profile loss for the party was the defeat of former leaderDick Spring in Kerry.
• The success of theGreen Party, which increased its TDs from two to six, including its firstTeachta Dála (TD) outside ofDublin.
• The electoral success ofSinn Féin, which increased its seat number from one to five.
• The election of a large number of independent candidates.
• Contrary to what opinion polls and political pundits were predicting, the Progressive Democrats kept all of their seats, and picked up four more.
• It was the first time electronic voting machines were used in an Irish election. They were used in three constituencies:Dublin North,Dublin West andMeath. They would not be used again at a general election.

The most noticeable feature of the election was the collapse in Fine Gael's vote. It suffered its second worst electoral result ever (after the1948 general election), with several prominent members failing to get re-elected, including:

• Alan Dukes – former party leader
• Jim Mitchell – deputy leader
• Nora Owen – former deputy leader and formerMinister for Justice
• Austin Currie – formerpresidential candidate
• Jim Higgins – formerChief Whip
• Alan Shatter – front bench member
• Deirdre Clune – front bench member
• Michael Creed – front bench member
• Frances Fitzgerald – front bench member

The party's losses were especially pronounced in Dublin, where just three TDs (Richard Bruton,Gay Mitchell andOlivia Mitchell) were returned, fewer than Fianna Fáil, Labour, the Progressive Democrats or the Greens.The reasons for the drop in support for Fine Gael are many and varied:

• There was an element of bad luck in some losses, and the proportion of seats they lost (42.6%) was much greater than the proportion of votes (25.2%).
• In 2002, the Irish economy was booming, unemployment was low, and the outgoing government was a stable one that had lasted its full term.
• No other opposition party, noticeably Labour, would agree to a pre-election pact with Fine Gael, sensing the unpopularity of the party. This meant that no-one felt that Fine Gael would be able to lead a government after the election. In contrast, the two parties of the outgoing government fought the election on a united front.
• The Fine Gael party was poorly organised in Dublin, and morale was low.
• The political landscape had changed in Ireland since Fine Gael's heyday in the 1980s. The Progressive Democrats and the Green Party in particular ate into Fine Gael's middle class support, and anti-Fianna Fáil voters had a much wider range of parties to choose from. All 4 of the extra seats won by the Green Party were at the expense of Fine Gael, as were 3 out of 4 of the Progressive Democrats' gains.
• Toward the end of the campaign,Michael McDowell warned that because Fianna Fáil were so high in the opinion polls, they could form a government by themselves. This led to a significant shift to the Progressive Democrats at the last minute, and many Fine Gael voters voted strategically for the Progressive Democrats to avoid a single-party Fianna Fáil government.

In the immediate aftermath of the election, Fine Gael leaderMichael Noonan announced his resignation from the leadership andEnda Kenny was chosen as the new leader in the subsequentelection.

Election to the 29th Dáil – 17 May 2002[3][4][5]
Party		Leader	Seats	±	% of seats	First pref. votes	% FPv	±%
	Fianna Fáil	Bertie Ahern	81	8	48.8	770,748	41.5	2.2
	Fine Gael	Michael Noonan	31	23	18.7	417,619	22.5	5.4
	Labour	Ruairi Quinn	21[b][a]	4	12.7	200,130	10.8	2.1
	Sinn Féin	Gerry Adams	5	4	3.0	121,020	6.5	4.0
	Progressive Democrats	Mary Harney	8	4	4.8	73,628	4.0	0.7
	Green	Trevor Sargent	6	4	3.6	71,470	3.8	1.0
	Socialist Party	Joe Higgins	1	0	0.6	14,896	0.8	0.1
	Christian Solidarity		0	0	0.0	4,741	0.3	0.2
	Workers' Party	Seán Garland	0	0	0.0	4,012	0.2	0.2
	Socialist Workers	N/A	0	0	0.0	3,333	0.2	0.1
	Independent	N/A	13	7	7.8	176,305	9.5	2.6
Spoilt votes						20,707	—	—
Total			166	0	100	1,878,609	100	—
Electorate/Turnout						3,002,173	62.6	—

Independents includeIndependent Health Alliance candidates (12,296 votes, 1 seat) andIndependent Fianna Fáil (6,124 votes, 1 seat).

Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats formed the26th government of Ireland, a majority coalition government. As of 2025^[update] it is the only coalition government in Irish politics to have been returned after a general election.

The following changes took place as a result of the election:

• 22 outgoing TDs retired
• 143 TDs stood for re-election (plus theCeann Comhairle,Séamus Pattison who was automatically returned)
  • 110 of those were re-elected
  • 33 failed to be re-elected
• 55 successor TDs were elected
  • 47 were elected for the first time
  • 8 had previously been TDs
• There were 7 successor female TDs, replacing 6 outgoing, increasing the total number by 1 to 22
• There were changes in 38 of 42 constituencies contested

Outgoing TDs are listed in the constituency they contested in the election. For some, such as Marian McGennis, this differs from the constituency they represented in the outgoing Dáil. Where more than one change took place in a constituency the concept of successor is an approximation for presentation only.

The cross-party seat transfers are summarized thus:

The Dáil election was followed by the election to the22nd Seanad.

• Mitchell, Paul (April 2003). "Fianna Fáil still dominant in the coalition era: The Irish general election of May 2002".West European Politics.26 (2):174–183.doi:10.1080/01402380512331341171.S2CID 156354615.
• Kennedy, Geraldine, ed. (8 May 2024).The Irish Times Nealon's guide to the 29th Dáil & Seanad. Dublin:The Irish Times/Gill & Macmillan.ISBN 978-0717132881.

• RTÉ archives
• Archived collection of party manifestos from 2002 on IrishManifestos.co.nr

• 2002 elections in the Republic of Ireland
• 2002 in Irish politics
• General elections in the Republic of Ireland
• 29th Dáil
• May 2002 in Ireland

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