2024 Irish general election

The 2024 Irish general election was held in Ireland on Friday 29 November 2024 to choose the Teachtaí Dála of the 34th Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas. Members were elected by proportional representation with the single transferable vote in 43 Dáil constituencies, each returning three, four or five deputies. The chamber grew from 160 seats in 39 constituencies at the previous election to 174 seats, following a 2023 review by the Electoral Commission.

On 8 November 2024 Taoiseach Simon Harris of Fine Gael asked President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins to dissolve the 33rd Dáil, and a general election was officially called that day for 29 November. Nominations closed at noon on 16 November. The outgoing government was a coalition of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party, agreed in June 2020 after the 2020 general election, with the taoiseach’s office rotating between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. Harris had said on 6 November that he would seek a dissolution that Friday, before the Dáil’s five-year term ran out in March 2025.

Fianna Fáil, led by Micheál Martin, won 48 seats, Sinn Féin 39 and Fine Gael 38. First-preference shares were 21.9% for Fianna Fáil, 20.8% for Fine Gael and 19.0% for Sinn Féin. The Labour Party and the Social Democrats each won 11 seats, and the Green Party fell from 12 seats to one. Turnout was 59.7%, the lowest in more than a century. Eighty-eight seats were required for a majority; Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael together held 86.

In an exit poll for The Irish Times, RTÉ, TG4 and Trinity College Dublin, 28% of voters named housing and homelessness as the most important issue, ahead of the cost of living (19%) and health (17%), while 6% named immigration. Martin was elected taoiseach on 23 January 2025, returning to an office he had held from 2020 to 2022, at the head of a Fianna Fáil–Fine Gael coalition supported by independent deputies. Under the parties’ rotation arrangement he was to serve until 2027, when Harris was due to succeed him.

Background

The 2020 election and coalition

The 2020 Irish general election, on 8 February 2020, left no party near a majority in the 160-seat Dáil Éireann. Sinn Féin won the most first preferences, 24.5%, and 37 seats, a gain of 14. Fianna Fáil took the most seats, 38, on 22.2%. Fine Gael, then in office under Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, won 35 seats on 20.9%, a loss of 15. The Green Party won 12 seats, up from two, and the Labour Party and the Social Democrats six each. Turnout, valid votes as a share of the register, was 62.9%.

Fianna Fáil, led by Micheál Martin, and Fine Gael had both refused a coalition with Sinn Féin, and Mary Lou McDonald lacked the numbers for an alternative government. Talks among the other three parties ran through the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Republic of Ireland. In June 2020 they agreed Our Shared Future, the first programme putting Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael — parties formed on opposite sides of the Irish Civil War — into office together. Members backed it by 74% in Fianna Fáil, 80% in Fine Gael and 76% in the Greens. Martin was to serve as Taoiseach until 15 December 2022 and then resign so the parties would nominate the Fine Gael leader; the Tánaiste would be the leader of the largest party not holding the Taoiseach's office.

On 27 June 2020 the 33rd Dáil met at the Convention Centre Dublin, so members could sit apart, and elected Martin by 93 votes to 63, with three abstentions. Every Fine Gael TD, the Greens and nine independents supported him, the first time Fine Gael deputies had voted for a Fianna Fáil Taoiseach. Varadkar said that civil-war politics was ending in parliament. Martin received his seal of office from President Michael D. Higgins, and Varadkar became Tánaiste. The agreed rotation followed on 17 December 2022: the Dáil elected Varadkar by 87 votes to 62, and Martin became Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Leadership changes in 2024

On 8 March 2024 voters rejected two government-backed amendments to the Constitution. A proposal to extend the protection of the family beyond marriage was defeated by 67.7%, and a proposal to replace the wording on the role of women and mothers in the home by 73.9%, the largest No share recorded in an Irish referendum. Turnout was 44.4%. Varadkar said both had been "defeated comprehensively" and that the government had failed to convince the electorate.

On 20 March he resigned as Fine Gael leader with immediate effect and said he would leave the Taoiseach's office once a successor could take it. His reasons, he said, were "personal and political, but mainly political": after seven years he was no longer "the best person" to renew the party and seek the coalition's re-election. Simon Harris, then Minister for Further and Higher Education, was the only candidate. On 9 April the Dáil elected him Taoiseach by 88 votes to 69. At 37 he was the youngest person to hold the office. He said the coalition should run until the election due by March 2025. McDonald called the handover "pass the parcel" and demanded a poll.

Eamon Ryan, Green leader since 2011, announced on 18 June 2024 that he would step down and not contest the next Dáil election. The decision followed local and European elections in which the party lost both of its European Parliament seats and about half its councillors. He cited workload and family commitments and stayed in Cabinet for the handover; deputy leader Catherine Martin also stood aside. On 8 July members elected Roderic O'Gorman by 984 votes to 912 for Senator Pippa Hackett, with 1,896 of 3,425 eligible members voting. He said he would not seek a reshuffle and wanted the government to run its full term.

Martin remained leader of Fianna Fáil and McDonald of Sinn Féin. The coalition stayed in office until 8 November 2024, when Harris asked Higgins to dissolve the 33rd Dáil and the President signed the proclamation.

Electoral system and constituencies

Single transferable vote

The 174 members of Dáil Éireann elected in 2024 were returned, as Article 16.2.5° of the Constitution of Ireland requires, by proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote. Voting is by secret ballot and limited to one vote a person; no constituency returns fewer than three members; and polling is held on the same day so far as practicable.

Statute limits each Dáil constituency to three, four or five seats. A voter has one vote but may rank candidates 1, 2, 3 and so on, for as many or as few as they choose. The ballot paper lists candidates alphabetically, with a photograph and, where the candidate is affiliated, a party emblem. A paper may be rejected if it carries other writing, shows no clear first preference, or was not stamped by the presiding officer or polling clerk.

The quota, the number of votes sufficient to secure election, is the total of valid papers divided by one more than the number of seats, plus one, with any fraction disregarded. A candidate at or above the quota is elected, and any surplus moves on the next available preference. On the first count all of that candidate's papers are examined; later, only the parcel that crossed the quota is used. If it is not transferred, the lowest candidate is excluded and those papers move at full value. The last seats may be filled without the quota once the candidates still in the count equal the seats left open.

The 2023 boundary review

Article 16.2.2° forbids fixing the Dáil at fewer than one member for every 30,000 of the population or at more than one for every 20,000. The ratio of seats to population in each constituency, taken from the last census, must be as nearly equal as practicable. The Oireachtas must revise the constituencies at least once every twelve years, but a revision does not take effect during the life of the Dáil sitting when it is made.

The 2022 census of Ireland, taken on the night of 3 April 2022, counted 5,149,139 people, 8.1% more than in 2016. On the existing 160 seats that gave an average of 32,182 people per deputy, above the constitutional ceiling of 30,000.

An Coimisiún Toghcháin, established on 9 February 2023 by the Electoral Reform Act 2022, published its review on 30 August 2023. The Act required a Dáil of 171 to 181 members, contiguous three-, four- or five-seat constituencies, avoidance of county-boundary breaches so far as practicable, regard to geography and population density, and continuity with the existing map.

The Commission recommended 174 Teachtaí Dála in 43 constituencies, 14 more seats and four more constituencies, an average of 29,593 people per member. It proposed 13 three-seat, 15 four-seat and 15 five-seat constituencies, compared with 9, 17 and 13. Clare, Cork South-West, Donegal, Dublin Central, Kerry, Limerick County and Waterford were left unchanged. Using 556 submissions, it removed seven of the ten county-boundary breaches, reduced two and created three, leaving breaches only in Donegal, Galway, Kilkenny, Meath, Wexford and Wicklow, and allowed a variance from the national average of up to 8.13%.

The Electoral (Amendment) Act 2023, enacted on 19 December 2023, provided that from the next dissolution the Dáil would have 174 members for the constituencies in its Schedule, and that the 2017 constituencies Act would be repealed on that dissolution. The Schedule, describing areas as constituted on 1 October 2023, assigns 15 five-seat, 15 four-seat and 13 three-seat constituencies, the map used to elect the 34th Dáil.

Franchise and administration

Article 16.1.2° gives every citizen, and such other persons in the State as law determines, who has reached 18, is not disqualified and complies with electoral law, the right to vote for the Dáil. A citizen may be a member from the age of 21.

In a Dáil election the franchise is limited to Irish and British citizens resident in Ireland who are 18 or over on polling day and on the register of electors. Other residents may vote in local elections, and other European Union citizens in European Parliament elections, but not for the Dáil.

The register can be checked at voter.ie. A polling card is not required. Staff may ask for identification, and only a stamped ballot paper is valid. After the poll, each constituency's boxes go to one counting place for the returning officer to reconcile and count.

Dissolution and timetable

Decision to dissolve

The 33rd Dáil was dissolved on 8 November 2024, more than three months before its latest lawful date. Article 16.5 of the Constitution of Ireland provides that the same Dáil Éireann shall not continue for longer than seven years from its first meeting, while allowing a shorter period to be fixed by law. Section 33 of the Electoral Act 1992 fixes five years. The 33rd Dáil’s record opens with its sitting of 20 February 2020, so that limit ran to 20 February 2025.

Simon Harris, Taoiseach and leader of Fine Gael, set the timing on 6 November 2024 on RTÉ’s Six One. He said he would seek a dissolution on 8 November, with polling hoped for on 29 November, once the Finance Bill enacting the budget had passed the Dáil—by 75 votes to 55 the night before. Micheál Martin, Tánaiste and leader of Fianna Fáil, had already said he expected the election to be called that Friday.

On 7 November, Ceann Comhairle Seán Ó Fearghaíl adjourned the Dáil sine die after saying it had finished the business of the day, the week and of the 33rd Dáil. On 8 November Harris went to Áras an Uachtaráin and, under Article 13, asked President Michael D. Higgins to dissolve the 33rd Dáil and summon its successor. Article 13.2.1° requires the President to summon and dissolve Dáil Éireann on the Taoiseach’s advice. Higgins signed the proclamation shortly after 2 p.m. He dissolved Dáil Éireann and summoned the incoming Dáil for 10.30 a.m. on Wednesday 18 December 2024, within 30 days after polling day, as Article 16.4.2° requires.

Writs, nominations and polling

Article 16.3.2° requires the general election not later than 30 days after dissolution. The writs are not issued by a minister. Section 39 of the Electoral Act 1992 requires the Clerk of the Dáil, immediately on the proclamation, to direct each returning officer to elect that constituency’s full number of members. The Electoral Commission records the proclamation, the writs and the polling-day order as all issued on 8 November.

Darragh O'Brien, Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, made the order, appointing Friday 29 November 2024 and hours from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. in every constituency. Section 96, as amended in 2001, confines that day—Sundays, Good Friday and public holidays aside—to the 18th through the 25th day after the writs. The 29th was the 18th such day, the earliest the order could set. The poll was for 173 seats in the 43 constituencies named in the Electoral (Amendment) Act 2023. Article 16.6 deemed the outgoing Ceann Comhairle elected without a contest.

Nominations opened on 14 November, after notices of election on 11–13 November. Section 49, as substituted in 2007, closes them at 12 noon on the seventh day after the writs, disregarding excluded days: Saturday 16 November. Withdrawals were allowed until 12 noon on Monday 18 November. Postal and special-vote applications were due on 10 November, and changes to the register on 12 November; the Commission later said some voters had too little time to arrange a postal vote.

Parties, leaders and candidates

When nominations closed on 16 November 2024, returning officers' lists compiled by RTÉ showed 685 candidates for the 174 seats in Dáil Éireann. The totals counted candidatures rather than individuals, because a person may stand in more than one constituency, and withdrawals were still possible until the following Monday. No party had nominated enough candidates to win a majority on its own. Non-party independents, 171 in all, were the largest group.

Government parties

The outgoing coalition contested the election under leaders confirmed or retained in 2024. Micheál Martin, Fianna Fáil leader since 2011 and Tánaiste, headed a slate of 82. Simon Harris was elected Fine Gael leader unopposed on 24 March 2024 after Leo Varadkar resigned, became Taoiseach on 9 April, and led 80 candidates. Roderic O'Gorman was elected leader of the Green Party on 8 July 2024, defeating Pippa Hackett by 984 votes to 912 and succeeding Eamon Ryan. The Greens nominated 43 candidates, one in each constituency, 23 of them women.

The outgoing Ceann Comhairle, Fianna Fáil TD Seán Ó Fearghaíl, did not have to face the electorate. Article 16.6 of the Constitution of Ireland requires that the Dáil chairman immediately before a dissolution be deemed elected at the next general election, and section 36 of the Electoral Act 1992 does so unless he has told the Dáil he does not wish to be returned. Ó Fearghaíl was therefore deemed elected for Kildare South. Counting him would raise the Fianna Fáil figure to 83.

This was the first general election under a 40 per cent candidate rule for both women and men. The Electoral (Amendment) (Political Funding) Act 2012 cuts a qualified party's state funding by half unless at least 40 per cent of the candidates it authenticated were women and at least 40 per cent were men, replacing a 30 per cent test used from 2016. RTÉ reported that every party with outgoing Dáil representation had met it. Women were 41 per cent of the Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael tickets and 53 per cent of the Green ticket. Women for Election's count, as reported when nominations closed, was 248 women: 36.2 per cent of the 685 candidates, up 53 per cent on 2020, with at least two women in every constituency. The outgoing Dáil had 37 women among 160 TDs.

Sinn Féin and the centre-left

Sinn Féin nominated 71 candidates, the largest slate outside the coalition, about 42 per cent of them women. Its president was Mary Lou McDonald, elected unopposed at a special ard fheis on 10 February 2018 to succeed Gerry Adams.

The Labour Party nominated 32 candidates under Ivana Bacik, elected leader unopposed on 24 March 2022. The Social Democrats nominated 26 under Holly Cairns, who became leader in March 2023. Both had TDs in the outgoing Dáil and were among the parties RTÉ said had cleared the funding threshold.

Smaller parties and independents

Aontú, led by Peadar Tóibín, nominated 43 candidates, 51 per cent of them women. With the Greens, it was one of only two parties reported to be running more women than men. The People Before Profit–Solidarity alliance nominated 42. On 10 October 2024 People Before Profit, which until then had no single leader, selected Dún Laoghaire TD Richard Boyd Barrett as leader and national spokesperson, including for leaders' debates.

Independent Ireland nominated 28 candidates. The Electoral Commission registered the party in November 2023. Its founders, Cork South-West TD Michael Collins and Limerick County TD Richard O'Donoghue, both then in the Rural Independents group, said they wanted an option for voters unwilling to back Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael or Sinn Féin. Collins later said about 42 per cent of its candidates were women.

The quota does not bind non-party candidates, which kept the overall share of women below 40 per cent. RTÉ's remaining close-of-nominations entries were the Irish People (21), the Irish Freedom Party (15), the National Party (9), Liberty Republic (6), the Centre Party of Ireland, Independents 4 Change, the Party for Animal Welfare and Rabharta (three each), Ireland First (two), and 100% Redress and Right to Change (one each).

Campaign

Issues

Polling was set for 29 November 2024 after Taoiseach Simon Harris, on 8 November, asked President Michael D. Higgins to dissolve Dáil Éireann, for a campaign he put at three weeks. Housing, the cost of living and health were what canvassers reported hearing most; childcare fees recurred on doorsteps, and immigration was argued as pressure on housing and on GP services.

The parties agreed on building more homes and disagreed on subsidies and rents. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil would extend Help to Buy and the First Home shared-equity scheme, which opponents said were inflating prices. Fine Gael targeted 300,000 homes by 2030 and Fianna Fáil 60,000 a year by then, with about 12,000 social homes a year in each plan. Sinn Féin promised more than 300,000 homes in five years, 125,000 of them social or affordable, a phase-out of Help to Buy, a six-month no-fault eviction ban and a three-year rent freeze. The Labour Party would turn the Land Development Agency into a state builder and end Help to Buy by 2029; the Social Democrats offered 75,000 affordable homes and a rent freeze; the Green Party, 50,000 to 53,000 homes a year, including vacant properties; and People Before Profit, a rent freeze and a restored eviction ban.

On tax, Fine Gael would raise the higher-rate threshold by at least €2,000 a year, and Fianna Fáil proposed a threshold of at least €50,000, a cut in the lower universal social charge from 3 to 1.5 per cent, a pension of at least €350 a week and 9 per cent VAT on energy. Sinn Féin would abolish the charge on the first €45,000, raise child benefit and disability payments, and scrap the local property tax. Labour, the Social Democrats and the Greens emphasised indexing tax and welfare rather than rate cuts, and most parties pledged childcare at €200 a month, against free childcare from People Before Profit. In health, Fine Gael and Sinn Féin each offered 5,000 extra beds by 2031 and Sinn Féin a fully public system by 2035; Fianna Fáil offered more GPs, and Labour €1 billion for Sláintecare from the Apple tax case.

Net migration was almost 80,000 in the year to April 2024. By the campaign about 33,000 work permits had been issued in 2024 and 16,641 people had applied for asylum by October; about 82,000 Ukrainians were living in Ireland, and accommodation for asylum seekers and temporary-protection beneficiaries cost about €2.1 billion in 2023. No large party promised fewer migrants overall: Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil offered faster permits, quicker decisions and state centres instead of emergency hotels; Sinn Féin, one agency and no new centres in hard-pressed working-class areas; Labour and the Social Democrats, a right for migrant workers to change employer; and Aontú, six-month decisions and enforced deportations.

Debates and manifestos

Manifestos appeared across the ten days to 21 November, Aontú's still due that morning. Virgin Media Television said on 6 November that it would not hold a leaders' debate, citing market conditions and what it called a failure to fund its public-service output, and gave Harris, Mary Lou McDonald and Micheál Martin hour-long interviews on 13, 20 and 27 November. Sinn Féin said that let Fine Gael avoid scrutiny.

RTÉ broadcast the joint debates. On 18 November Upfront with Katie Hannon seated ten leaders for about two hours; more than 950,000 people watched for at least a minute. Harris and Martin, placed side by side, ruled out coalition with Sinn Féin. McDonald said a century of the two parties should end; Martin replied that Sinn Féin had opposed EU membership and the constitution for most of that century, and Harris said she was trying to "airbrush the past." When she spoke of "faux concern" for children he answered, "How dare you?" Ivana Bacik, Richard Boyd Barrett, Peadar Tóibín and Roderic O'Gorman were among the ten; Boyd Barrett said change could not mean keeping the outgoing parties in office, and Tóibín denied that Aontú had scapegoated migrants.

On 26 November a Prime Time debate limited to the three, and chaired by Miriam O'Callaghan and Sarah McInerney with Irish Sign Language, drew 1,060,000 viewers for at least a minute and an average audience of 565,000, RTÉ said. McDonald called the larger parties "Tweedledum and Tweedledee" and told them, "You brought the crash, and you brought austerity." Martin again ruled out government with Sinn Féin; Harris refused "a lecture" on law and order and called housing Fine Gael's "number one priority." They also disputed hospital waits and safety in Dublin.

Incidents

At a Fine Gael event in Mullingar on 9 November, Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary, endorsing minister Peter Burke, said the Dáil was "full of teachers" and that he "wouldn't generally employ a lot of teachers to go out and get things done." Harris and Burke both rejected the remark.

Harris defended Senator John McGahon, who had been acquitted in a criminal case but had lost a High Court civil claim, saying a conviction would have barred him and that party members had selected him. Before the first debate he answered McDonald by citing Michael McMonagle, a former Sinn Féin press officer then in prison for child sexual offences.

On 22 November, in a supermarket in Kanturk, County Cork, Charlotte Fallon, who works in a Section 39 disability service funded through the Health Service Executive, told Harris the budget had ignored carers. He denied it, shook her hand and walked away; she said, "Keep shaking hands and pretend you're a good man," and "You're not a good man." The RTÉ clip drew about two million views, and next morning Harris told her she "was absolutely owed an apology" and that "the buck stops with me entirely." In the final debate he called a Fine Gael staffer's contact with RTÉ about the footage a normal press approach.

Opinion polling

From the 2022 peak to 2024

In the Irish Times/Ipsos series, which reports first preferences after excluding undecided respondents and those unlikely to vote, Sinn Féin reached a series high of 36% in a survey of 1,200 adults interviewed at home on 10–12 July 2022, with a margin of about ±2.8 points. Fianna Fáil was on 20% and Fine Gael on 18%, its lowest reading in the series since 1994. A Business Post/Red C online poll of more than 1,000 adults, published on 28 May 2022 with a margin of ±3 points, had also put Sinn Féin on 36%, Fine Gael on 20% and Fianna Fáil on 15%.

The February Irish Times/Ipsos B&A poll put Sinn Féin at 28%, six points below its September 2023 reading and the lowest in the series for three years, with Fianna Fáil unchanged on 20% and Fine Gael up one point to 19%. On 16 May, three weeks before the local and European elections, Sinn Féin and Fine Gael were level on 23% and Fianna Fáil was still on 20%. The fall was sharpest among younger, urban and working-class respondents. Fieldwork on 14–17 September, again 1,200 in-home interviews and about ±2.8 points, put Fine Gael on 27%, Sinn Féin on 20%, Fianna Fáil on 19% and the Green Party on 5%. Simon Harris's satisfaction rating rose 17 points to 55%.

Final campaign polls and the exit poll

Polls in the last week before voting on 29 November put the three larger parties close together. A Sunday Independent/Ireland Thinks online survey of 1,420 people on 21–22 November, margin ±2.3 points, had Fine Gael on 22% and Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil on 20% each, with independents, including Independent Ireland, on 19%. The Irish Times/Ipsos B&A poll of 20–23 November, 1,200 face-to-face interviews and a margin of ±2.8 points, had Fianna Fáil on 21%, Sinn Féin on 20% and Fine Gael on 19%, a six-point Fine Gael drop in less than two weeks. Independents including Independent Ireland were on 17%, and the Social Democrats on 6%. Red C's online Business Post poll of 1,004 voters over the six days to 26 November, margin ±3 points, had Fianna Fáil on 21% and Fine Gael and Sinn Féin on 20%.

The exit poll commissioned by The Irish Times, RTÉ, TG4 and Trinity College Dublin, and conducted by Ipsos B&A, interviewed 5,018 voters at 253 polling stations in all 43 constituencies. Its stated margin was ±1.4 points, and it was released as the polls closed at 10pm. It put Sinn Féin on 21.1%, Fine Gael on 21% and Fianna Fáil on 19.5%, with the Social Democrats on 5.8%, the Labour Party on 5%, the Greens on 4%, Aontú on 3.6%, People Before Profit–Solidarity on 3.1%, Independent Ireland on 2.2%, other independents on 12.7% and others on 1.9%. Housing and homelessness was named the most important issue by 28%, the cost of living by 19% and health by 17%; immigration, salient for much of the year, was named by 6%. Forty-nine per cent preferred a government led by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, against 22% for a Sinn Féin-led government excluding both. Micheál Martin was the preferred taoiseach of 35%, Mary Lou McDonald of 34% and Harris of 27%.

The count did not match that order. RTÉ's compilation of first-preference shares was Fianna Fáil 21.9%, Fine Gael 20.8% and Sinn Féin 19.0%. Ipsos B&A president Damian Loscher said the Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil estimates both lay outside the ±1.4-point margin. He cited turnout a little lower than in 2020, differences by time of day, and refusals that appeared heavily biased towards older voters, who were more likely to support Fianna Fáil.

Results

National totals

The election of 29 November 2024 filled 174 seats in Dáil Éireann, 14 more than in 2020, across 43 constituencies. Counting ended on 2 December, when Brendan Smith and Niamh Smyth of Fianna Fáil were deemed elected in Cavan-Monaghan, the last constituency to finish. Fianna Fáil had 48 TDs, Sinn Féin 39 and Fine Gael 38. The Fianna Fáil figure includes outgoing Ceann Comhairle Seán Ó Fearghaíl, deemed elected for Kildare South under section 36 of the Electoral Act 1992; the party won 47 seats by the count. A majority of the 174-seat Dáil was 88. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael together held 86.

From a valid poll of 2,202,453, first preferences and seats — party labels as on the ballot, and Fianna Fáil's 48 including Ó Fearghaíl — were:

Party or group	Candidates	First-preference votes	Share	Seats
Fianna Fáil	82	481,414	21.86%	48
Sinn Féin	71	418,627	19.01%	39
Fine Gael	80	458,134	20.80%	38
Non-party	171	290,748	13.20%	16
Social Democrats	26	106,028	4.81%	11
Labour Party	32	102,457	4.65%	11
Independent Ireland	28	78,276	3.55%	4
People Before Profit–Solidarity	42	62,481	2.84%	3
Aontú	43	86,134	3.91%	2
Green Party	43	66,911	3.04%	1
100% Redress	1	6,862	0.31%	1
Other parties	67	44,381	2.02%	0
Total	686	2,202,453	100%	174

In 2020, with 160 seats, Fianna Fáil had 22.2% of first preferences and 38 seats, Sinn Féin 24.5% and 37, and Fine Gael 20.9% and 35. Sinn Féin's share fell by about five and a half points while it gained two seats in the larger House; Fianna Fáil's share barely moved and its membership rose by 10. The Green Party fell from 7.1% and 12 seats to 3.04% and one. The Social Democrats went from 2.9% and six seats to 4.81% and 11, and the Labour Party from 4.4% and six to 4.65% and 11. People Before Profit–Solidarity took three seats, down from five, on 2.84% (2.6% in 2020). Aontú went from 1.9% and one seat to 3.91% and two.

The 2020 profile's "independents and others" (19 seats, 13.1%) is not the same category as the 2024 non-party total of 16. Parties with no seats included the Irish Freedom Party (14,838 votes, 0.67%, from 16 candidates), The Irish People (7,626, 0.35%), the National Party (6,511, 0.30%) and Independents 4 Change (5,166, 0.23%).

Patterns across constituencies

The 12 Dublin constituencies returned 49 TDs: Sinn Féin and Fine Gael 11 each, Fianna Fáil 10, the Social Democrats six, Labour five, People Before Profit–Solidarity three, the Greens one and non-party candidates two. All three People Before Profit–Solidarity seats were in the city — Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire), Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West) and Paul Murphy (Dublin South-West). Fianna Fáil's lead was wider outside Dublin. In County Cork's five constituencies (20 seats) it won seven, Fine Gael four, Sinn Féin and the Social Democrats three each, Independent Ireland two and Labour one.

In Kerry, non-party Michael Healy-Rae polled 18,596 first preferences, above the quota of 13,083, and was elected on the first count; Danny Healy-Rae was also returned, with Sinn Féin's Pa Daly and Fianna Fáil's Norma Foley and Michael Cahill. Fine Gael's Billy O'Shea (7,932) was not elected. In County Donegal, Charles Ward won 100% Redress's only seat, alongside Pearse Doherty and Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Sinn Féin) and Pat "The Cope" Gallagher and Charlie McConalogue (Fianna Fáil).

County Wicklow, with four seats, was headed by Simon Harris on 16,869 first preferences, enough for election on the first count (quota 11,415). Jennifer Whitmore (Social Democrats), John Brady (Sinn Féin) and Edward Timmins (Fine Gael) took the other seats. Fianna Fáil Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly, on 3,553 first preferences, was not returned: of Harris's surplus of 5,454, Timmins received 2,463 and Donnelly 1,019. In Dublin Central, Mary Lou McDonald led with 6,389. Non-party Gerry Hutch polled 3,098, almost a tenth of the valid poll of 32,754, but Labour's Marie Sherlock took the fourth seat.

The Greens' only TD was leader Roderic O'Gorman in Dublin West, elected on the 13th count from 2,909 first preferences (quota 7,373). Deputy leader Catherine Martin lost Dublin Rathdown, which returned Neale Richmond and Maeve O'Connell (Fine Gael), Sinéad Gibney (Social Democrats) and Shay Brennan (Fianna Fáil). Aontú's seats were leader Peadar Tóibín in Meath West and Paul Lawless in Mayo. Independent Ireland's four, so labelled on the count, were Michael Collins (Cork South-West), Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway), Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County) and Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central).

Other non-party TDs included Michael Lowry (Tipperary North), Mattie McGrath and Séamus Healy (Tipperary South), Verona Murphy (Wexford) and Catherine Connolly (Galway West). Fine Gael's Bernard Durkan, then the longest-serving TD, lost Kildare North. In Cavan-Monaghan, outgoing Sinn Féin TD Pauline Tully was eliminated; Aontú's Sarah O'Reilly finished sixth on 10,067, and Smyth (11,058) and Smith (10,886) were deemed elected short of the quota of 11,542. Because Ó Fearghaíl was already returned, County Kildare's Kildare South filled only three seats by election: Martin Heydon (Fine Gael), Shónagh Ní Raghallaigh (Sinn Féin) and Mark Wall (Labour).

Turnout, transfers and the new Dáil

The electorate was 3,715,285. Turnout — papers cast divided by the electorate — was 59.71% (2,218,302 papers). There were 2,202,453 valid votes and 15,849 invalid papers (0.71% of those cast). The BBC called 59.7% the lowest turnout in more than a century; the Oireachtas Library & Research Service had put the 2020 figure at 62.9%.

Ballot papers are sorted at a count centre after Ireland's 29 November 2024 general election.

Turnout was highest in Wicklow (67.81%), Roscommon-Galway (65.89%), Tipperary North (65.67%) and Kerry (65.36%), and lowest in Dublin Bay South (47.77%), Dublin South-Central (49.07%) and Dublin Central (52.27%). Invalid papers were mostly a first preference for more than one candidate (6,842) or an unclear or blank first preference (6,246); 1,956 lacked the official mark and 805 could, in the returning officer's opinion, identify the voter.

Under the single transferable vote, the quota was the valid poll divided by one more than the number of seats, plus one. In Kildare South the divisor was four rather than five, because one seat was already filled. On the second count in Kerry, 2,633 of Michael Healy-Rae's surplus went to Danny Healy-Rae. Several final seats, including both Fianna Fáil seats in Cavan-Monaghan, were filled without the quota being reached.

Vote share and seats diverged. Fianna Fáil's 21.86% of first preferences became 48 of 174 seats, and Sinn Féin's 19.01% became 39. The Social Democrats and Labour, each a little under 5%, each won 11. Aontú's 3.91%, from 43 candidates, produced two seats, and the Greens' 3.04% produced one. Non-party candidates took 13.20% of first preferences and 16 seats.

There were 686 candidates, 246 women (36%) and 440 men, and 331 candidates lost their election expenses. Of the 173 seats filled by the count, 44 went to women and 129 to men, so the Dáil, with Ó Fearghaíl, contained 44 women, against 36 of 160 TDs in 2020. Fourteen constituencies returned no woman, including four of the five in Cork. Micheál Martin was re-elected in Cork South-Central, McDonald in Dublin Central and Harris in Wicklow.

Government formation

Coalition talks

The 34th Dáil Éireann has 174 seats, so 88 is a majority. Fianna Fáil won 48 and Fine Gael 38, a combined 86; Sinn Féin won 39. Before polling day Fianna Fáil's Jack Chambers said the party would "absolutely not" enter coalition with Sinn Féin, and leader Micheál Martin cited serious economic differences. The two parties then negotiated with each other and opened talks with the Labour Party, the Social Democrats and independents. The Green Party, the outgoing coalition's junior partner, returned one TD.

Labour's parliamentary party withdrew unanimously on 19 December. Leader Ivana Bacik said the gap, especially with Fianna Fáil, was too wide on a state-owned construction company, publicly provided childcare and the tax base, and that a small party would have little leverage. She treated support for Independent Verona Murphy as Ceann Comhairle as a sign of the talks' direction, and said Labour also differed from Sinn Féin. On 7 January Social Democrats deputy leader Cian O'Callaghan ruled his party out, citing unmet demands for 50,000 affordable homes, full Sláintecare, a senior disability minister, publicly funded childcare and significant climate action.

On 14 January Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael agreed terms with a seven-TD Regional Independent Group — Michael Lowry, Noel Grealish, Seán Canney, Marian Harkin, Kevin "Boxer" Moran, Barry Heneghan and Gillian Toole — and with Kerry TDs Michael Healy-Rae and Danny Healy-Rae. The group was reported to have secured two ministers of state attending Cabinet, expected to be Canney and Grealish, and two junior ministries, expected for Harkin and Moran; the Healy-Raes were reported to have one junior post. There was no independent seat at full Cabinet rank. Senior posts were to split eight to Fianna Fáil and seven to Fine Gael, and Lowry said the independents would support the government on good days and bad. Those nine TDs account for the difference between the parties' 86 seats and the 95 votes later cast for Martin.

Ceann Comhairle and the January Dáil

The Dáil's first sitting, on 18 December 2024, opened with the 2024 Ceann Comhairle election, a secret ballot under the single transferable vote.

Murphy won on the third count and became the first woman to hold the office. The quota was 87. She had 76 first preferences, received none of John McGuinness's transfers, and then gained 13 from outgoing Ceann Comhairle Seán Ó Fearghaíl to reach 89, against 67 for Sinn Féin's Aengus Ó Snodaigh. Simon Harris, then Taoiseach, and Martin, then Tánaiste, had recommended that their parties support her. She said she would be fair, impartial, "even-handed and even-tempered", and a reforming chair. Lowry called it an achievement for the regional group, which had sought those votes because of the numbers, but denied a formal deal. The Dáil then defeated a nomination of Mary Lou McDonald for Taoiseach by 110 votes to 44, with 14 abstentions, and adjourned until 22 January.

The 22 January sitting, called to elect a Taoiseach, was adjourned four times without a vote. Lowry, Heneghan, Gillian Toole and Danny Healy-Rae, who intended to support the incoming government in every division, sought opposition speaking time, including Leaders' Questions, as a technical group. Murphy had allowed that provisionally. Sinn Féin, Labour, the Social Democrats and other opposition TDs said government supporters were not an opposition, and objected to the decision being made by Murphy, who had come from the same grouping.

After overnight talks the House resumed on 23 January. Murphy excluded the technical group from that day's business and left speaking rights to be settled before the Dáil returned on 5 February. Martin, proposed by Albert Dolan and seconded by Catherine Ardagh, was elected Taoiseach by 95 votes to 76. McDonald was also nominated, proposed by Mairéad Farrell and seconded by Pearse Doherty. He received his seal of office from President Michael D. Higgins and named eight Fianna Fáil ministers, including himself, and seven from Fine Gael. Harris became Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade and for Defence. Canney, Grealish and Fine Gael's Hildegarde Naughton were to attend Cabinet but not to speak there. The Dáil approved the appointments by 97 votes to 72; the ministers received their seals, and the House adjourned until 5 February.

Programme for government

Programme for Government 2025 – Securing Ireland's Future, published by the Department of the Taoiseach on 15 January, said the participants had formed a stable majority in order to deliver five budgets. Martin was to remain Taoiseach until 16 November 2027, when the office would rotate to Harris. Commitments reported from the text included 300,000 homes and 300,000 extra jobs by the end of 2030, childcare reduced progressively to €200 a month per child, a primary pupil-teacher ratio of 19:1, the phasing out of the carer's means test, and a transfer of international-protection accommodation and integration to the Department of Justice. The Irish Times reported an understanding, left out of the text, that VAT on food, hospitality, hairdressing and entertainment would fall from 13.5 per cent to 9 per cent in the next budget, and that the programme would not repeat the previous coalition's 2:1 preference for new public transport over new roads.

Analysis and aftermath

Interpreting the result

Commentators read the result as continuity, not the anti-incumbent swing seen elsewhere in 2024. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael won 21.9% and 20.8% of first preferences and 48 and 38 seats in a Dáil Éireann enlarged from 160 to 174, together two short of a majority. The Irish Times wrote that those shares were almost unchanged from 2020, that voters had "chosen stability and continuity over change", and that the outcome vindicated Micheál Martin.

The exception was the Green Party. Its first-preference share fell to 3%, and only leader Roderic O'Gorman held a seat, in Dublin West; the other sitting Green TDs lost, and former leader Eamon Ryan had not stood. It was the party's worst Dáil result since its wipeout in 2011. Outgoing minister Catherine Martin called it "the old story of the junior coalition partner" being punished for the government. Former MEP Ciarán Cuffe said the Greens were "the fall guys", blamed by supporters for doing too little on climate and by the larger parties for costs such as the carbon tax.

Sinn Féin won 39 seats, one more than Fine Gael, on 19.0%—about five points below 2020 and far short of the 36% in the Irish Times/Ipsos poll of mid-2022, when Mary Lou McDonald had looked a likely next Taoiseach. The Irish Times called that a significant setback: Sinn Féin lost about one in five of its 2020 voters, while other opposition parties gained, and transfers that produced more seats than Fine Gael risked concealing the fall. The Labour Party and the Social Democrats each won 11 seats.

No candidate campaigning chiefly against immigration was elected. The Irish Times counted more than 60 candidates it classed on the extreme right, about half of them in a National Alliance, and none was returned. Gavin Pepper was eliminated on 6%, and Malachy Steenson took under 5% in Dublin Central. An exit poll for RTÉ, The Irish Times, TG4 and Trinity College Dublin ranked housing and homelessness first (28%), then the cost of living (19%) and health (17%); immigration was the main issue for 6%. Fianna Fáil deputy leader Jack Chambers spoke of a "clear rejection". Independent Ireland, which the Irish Times said held right-wing positions on immigration, won four seats, and independents Mattie McGrath and Carol Nolan, who had emphasised curbs on immigration, topped their polls.

Early months of the 35th government

The row over speaking time for independents supporting the government still shaped the opening months of the 35th Government of Ireland. Reviewing the first 100 days, reached in early May 2025, the Irish Times said three months passed before Oireachtas committees were established. On housing, the issue voters had placed first, it reported that construction was slowing, that completion figures Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael had used in the campaign were wildly inaccurate, and that the programme for government's targets now looked unrealistic; a dispute over a "housing tsar" had not yielded a credible plan.

Martin met Donald Trump at the White House on 12 March. The Irish Times reported no rupture and a restatement of Irish-American ties, but no material gain, as Washington pressed tariffs and scrutiny of pharmaceutical investment in Ireland. Simon Harris, Tánaiste and minister for foreign affairs, worked on the European tariff response.