Ireland still has a caretaker government following an inconclusive general election on 08 February. That election ended the century-old duopoly of the centre-right Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael parties, who between them have led every Irish government since the foundation of the state a century ago, following the surge in support for the left-nationalist Sinn Féin party at the polls.
The three parties finished neck-and-neck with less than a quarter of the vote each, and with Sinn Féin narrowly winning the popular vote. The balance of support went to smaller parties and independents in Ireland’s increasingly fragmented political landscape, including to the Green Party, Labour, the Social Democrats, and the leftist Solidarity People Before Profit Alliance, in the 160-seat lower house (see table 1).
