Next Irish general election


The next Irish general election to Dáil Éireann, the lower house of Ireland's parliament, the Oireachtas, will be held on or before Thursday 20 February 2025, to elect 160 TDs across 39 constituencies.
As the 2020 general election resulted in a situation whereby government formation required the participation of a minimum three political groups, the possibility of a snap election being held before the end of the five-year term of the Dáil remains high.
No Taoiseach with a mandate to form a government was nominated by the Dáil when it first met on 20 February. Leo Varadkar resigned as Taoiseach, but continued to carry out the duties pending the appointment of his successor. Negotiations continued, and concluded on 27 June 2020 with the election of Micheál Martin as Taoiseach in a three-way coalition government, consisting of the Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Green parties.

Electoral system

The 160 members of the Dáil will be elected in 39 multi-member constituencies, each with between three and five seats, using the single transferable vote system in which voters rank candidates on their ballot papers. When the ballot papers are counted, an electoral quota is created by dividing the number of valid votes by the number of seats, plus one.
Any candidate receiving a number of votes exceeding the quota is elected. If fewer candidates reach the quota than the number of seats to be filled, the last-placed candidate is removed from the count and the second or subsequent preferences on those ballot papers are redistributed until a candidate is elected. If such a candidate now has more votes than the quota, their surplus is given to other candidates in order of ranking on the ballot papers. This is repeated until sufficient candidates have passed the quota to fill the available seats, or where a seat remains to be filled in a constituency and no candidate is capable of achieving a quota as there is nobody left to eliminate for a distribution then the highest place candidate without a quota is deemed elected at that point.
The outgoing Ceann Comhairle will be returned automatically unless they announce to the Dáil that they wish to retire as a TD.

Latest possible date

The next general election cannot be held later than Thursday 20 February 2025. This date derives from the Electoral Act, 1992: Section 33, which states that the same Dáil shall not continue for a longer period than five years from the date of its first meeting.

Opinion polls

Opinion poll footnotes

Opinion poll sources

Footnotes