electionstracker

Ireland 1989 general election

What was the result of the 1989 general election in Ireland?

Fianna Fáil won 77 of 166 seats with 44.1% of the vote. 68.1% of registered voters cast a ballot.

  • Ireland
  • Held:
  • Final result
  • ParlGov, read 5 October 2026

Which party won the most seats?

Final results from ParlGov, read : Fianna Fáil won 77 of 166 seats with 44.1% of the vote; 68.1% of registered voters cast a ballot, down 5.2 points on 1987.

  • Fianna Fáil 77 −4 seats 44.1% 0.0 points
  • Fine Gael 55 +4 seats 29.3% +2.2 points
  • Labour Party 15 +3 seats 9.5% +3.0 points
  • Progressive Democrats 6 −8 seats 5.5% −6.4 points
  • Workers' Party 7 +3 seats 5.0% +1.2 points
  • Green Party 1 1.5%
  • Sinn Féin 0 0 seats 1.2% −0.6 points
  • Democratic Socialist Party 1 0 seats 0.6% +0.2 points
  • Seats won
  • Change on the previous election at the right
  • Share of the vote
  • Share at the previous election
  • Change in points at the right

Changes are against the Ireland 1987 general election, party by party.

84 of 166 seats make a majority

Key numbers

  1. 44.1%

    Share of the vote won by Fianna Fáil

    Fianna Fáil won 77 of 166 seats. A majority needs 84.

  2. +4 seats

    Seats gained by Fine Gael

    The largest gain in seats compared with 1987. Progressive Democrats lost 8 seats.

  3. 68.1%

    Voter turnout

    Down 5.2 points on 1987.

Seats and votes by party

PartySeats± seats%± pointsVotes
Fianna Fáil77−444.10.0731,472
Fine Gael55+429.3+2.2485,307
Labour Party15+39.5+3.0156,989
Progressive Democrats6−85.5−6.491,013
Workers' Party7+35.0+1.282,263
Green Party11.524,827
Sinn Féin001.2−0.620,003
Democratic Socialist Party100.6+0.29,836
Independents4+1

± is the change against the Ireland 1987 general election, party by party.

Votes by party
  • Fianna Fáil 731,472
  • Fine Gael 485,307
  • Labour Party 156,989
  • Progressive Democrats 91,013
  • Workers' Party 82,263
  • Green Party 24,827
  • Sinn Féin 20,003
  • Democratic Socialist Party 9,836
  • Independents

ParlGov lists parties with at least 1 percent of the vote or 2 seats, so the rows do not add up to the valid votes.

How many people voted?

68.1% of the 2,448,810 registered voters cast a ballot (1,667,592 ballots), down 5.2 points on 1987. 1,656,813 of them were valid votes. The lowest turnout of this kind in our data, which begins in 1948.

How do the votes compare with the seats?

  • Fianna Fáil44.1% of votes46.4% of seats
  • Fine Gael29.3% of votes33.1% of seats
  • Labour Party9.5% of votes9.0% of seats
  • Workers' Party5.0% of votes4.2% of seats
  • Progressive Democrats5.5% of votes3.6% of seats
  • Green Party1.5% of votes0.6% of seats
  • Democratic Socialist Party0.6% of votes0.6% of seats
Each party's share of the vote (outlined) and of the seats (filled)

The Gallagher index of disproportionality is 4.0 (0 when seats follow votes exactly); the effective number of parties is 3.4 by votes and 3.0 by seats; Fianna Fáil led Fine Gael by 14.9 points of the vote.

Time and source Data as of