Fianna Fail fail to secure outright majority

Fianna Fail has been returned to government following the results of last Friday's Irish general election.

However, despite making significant gains, the party's failure to win enough seats to secure an outright parliamentary majority means Irish Prime Minister, Bertie Aherne has two weeks to build a coalition government.

Michael Noonan resigned as leader of the main opposition party, Fine Gael, after the party's disastrous showing, which saw their seats cut back by a third to 31, as numerous Fine Gael members failed to retain their seats, including Nora Owen, Alan Dukes, Alan Shatter and Jim Mitchell. Mr Mitchell has stated that he will not contest another general election.

However, the Green Party made a sizeable gain of six seats, and the Progressive Democrats performed better than expected, doubling their numbers of seats to eight.

Sinn Fein made significant gains by winning five seats, including one held for over twenty years by former Irish Foreign Minister Dick Spring. However, Mr Ahern has stressed that he wishes to see Sinn Fein disarm before he would consider sharing national government with the party. He added: "There cannot be ambiguity."

Following a recount on Monday morning, Dan Neville has retained his seat in Limerick West ahead of fellow Fianna Fail representative Michael Finucane, while another recount has commenced this afternoon in Cork South Central, where a narrow margin separates Independent candidate, Kathy Sinnott from Fianna Fail's John Dennehy. The Wicklow constituency recount is to be delayed until Thursday, with only five votes between Independent candidate Mildred Fox and Nicky Kelly of the Labour Party.

(CL)