May Posted by glhermine. David J. Barrett contributed this excellent guest post covering the results of the European and local elections in Ireland. The Irish European and Local elections, along with two parliamentary by-elections, took place on May 23 rd. Led by Enda Kenny, the long standing Fine Gael leader since and a former Minister for Tourism, the government had a crushing parliamentary majority.
There were indications that the government could prove fractious. Labour, a Social Democratic party, had largely campaigned against excessive cuts to public services, while Fine Gael, a Christian Democratic party, had made it very clear that they were in favour of implementing the proposed austerity budgets negotiated by their predecessors, even if they were not very happy with it. The final coalition agreement, while containing commitments to several socially liberal reforms that pleased Labour, largely followed the Fine Gael line on the economy.
The government has trumpeted its economic success. However little of this has, or is expected to, reach the general public. Emigration, particularly to Britain and Australia, remains enormous. Inevitably therefore, this enormous popularity was not to last, and the government as its term has gone on has suffered increasing domestic setbacks.
They were most obviously felt by Labour, which began to suffer enormously from effectively conceding the economy to Fine Gael. While immediately following the General Election Labour won both the Presidential election and a by-election in Dublin West — the constituency held by the Labour Deputy Leader Joan Burton — the party has increasingly suffered from defections and resignations the longer it has been in government.
In November — six months after taking office — popular junior minister Willie Penrose had resigned from the party over the relocation of an army barracks in his constituency. He was followed one month later by the resignations of two backbenchers over the austerity proposed in the budget, with one the resignations being Patrick Nulty — the newly elected deputy for Dublin West. In September another junior minister, Roisin Shortall, a senior party figure who was considered a strong contender for a cabinet post, resigned from the party and government over disagreements with the Fine Gael Minister for Health James Reilly following perceived favouritism of his constituency in health resource allocation.
