Topic summary
31st Dáil
3 February 2016
— Eamon Gilmore
until 4 July 2014
The 31st Dáil was elected at the 2011 general election on 25 February 2011 and first met at midday on 9 March 2011 in Leinster House. The members of Dáil Éireann, the house of representatives of the Oireachtas (legislature) of Ireland, are known as TDs. It sat with the 24th Seanad as the two Houses of the Oireachtas.
The 2011 election saw 17 Dáil constituencies return 3 TDs each, 15 constituencies return 4 TDs each and 11 constituencies return 5 TDs each, for a total of 166. Seán Barrett was elected as Ceann Comhairle in the first sitting of the Dáil. For the first time, Fine Gael, led by Enda Kenny, became the largest party. It formed a coalition government with the Labour Party, led by Eamon Gilmore, who had achieved their highest number of seats in the party's history. In July 2014, Joan Burton won a Labour Party leadership election to become the leader of the Labour Party and Tánaiste.
Fianna Fáil secured 20 seats, the lowest in the party's history, and was the largest opposition party. The leader of the party, Micheál Martin became the Leader of the Opposition. Gerry Adams as leader of Sinn Féin became the second opposition leader. A technical group was formed following the election composed of 16 independent politicians and members of the United Left Alliance, who failed to win enough seats to gain speaking rights.
Almost half of the members of the 30th Dáil were absent from the 31st: 31 members retired before the poll and a further 45 TDs lost their seats at the election. 76 new TDs were elected to the Dáil, 46% of the total.
The 31st Dáil was dissolved by PresidentMichael D. Higgins on 3 February 2016, at the request of the Taoiseach Enda Kenny. The 31st Dáil lasted 4 years, 331 days.