The 2009 European Parliament election in Ireland was the Irish component of the 2009 European Parliament election and was held on Friday, 5 June 2009, coinciding with the 2009 local elections. Two by-elections ( Dublin South and Dublin Central) were also held on the same day.

National and regional summaries

The governing

Fianna Fáil Fianna Fáil (, ; meaning 'Soldiers of Destiny' or 'Warriors of Fál'), officially Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party ( ga, audio=ga-Fianna Fáil.ogg, Fianna Fáil – An Páirtí Poblachtánach), is a conservative and Christia ...

party lost one MEP and a significant share of the vote, in line with the day's other election results.

Fine Gael Fine Gael (, ; English: "Family (or Tribe) of the Irish") is a liberal-conservative and Christian-democratic political party in Ireland. Fine Gael is currently the third-largest party in the Republic of Ireland in terms of members of Dáil � ...

increased its national vote share but lost a seat. The Labour Party, which increased its delegation from one MEP to three, was the only major party to make seat gains.

Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur G ...

lost its only MEP in the Republic of Ireland, and the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of t ...

won a seat for the first time. One independent MEP lost her seat. The

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation f ...

's vote was halved, and the pan-European

Libertas Libertas (Latin for 'liberty' or 'freedom', ) is the Roman goddess and personification of liberty. She became a politicised figure in the Late Republic, featured on coins supporting the populares faction, and later those of the assassins of ...

party, based in Ireland, also failed to make a breakthrough. In

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

Gay Mitchell Gabriel Alexander Mitchell (born 30 December 1951) is an Irish former Fine Gael politician who served as Minister of State for European Affairs from 1994 to 1997 and Lord Mayor of Dublin from 1992 to 1993. He served as a Member of the European ...

of Fine Gael and

Proinsias De Rossa Proinsias De Rossa (born 15 May 1940) is a former Irish Labour Party politician who served as Minister for Social Welfare from 1994 to 1997, Leader of Democratic Left from 1992 to 1999 and Leader of the Workers' Party from 1988 to 1992. He s ...

of Labour were re-elected, while Joe Higgins of the Socialist Party defeated the incumbent Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin MEPs to take the third seat. In the

East East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fac ...

constituency,

Mairead McGuinness Mairead McGuinness (born 13 June 1959) is an Irish politician serving as the European Commissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services and the Capital Markets Union since October 2020. A member of Fine Gael, she previously served as Fi ...

of Fine Gael and

Liam Aylward Liam Aylward (born 27 September 1952) is a former Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as a Minister of State from 1988 to 1989, from 1992 to 1994 and from 2004 to 2004. He served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the East con ...

of Fianna Fáil were re-elected.

Nessa Childers Nessa Maria Vereker Childers (born 9 October 1956) is an Irish Independent politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2009 to 2019. Early life She is the daughter of the fourth President of Ireland, Erskine H. Chil ...

of Labour took the vacant final seat. North-West re-elected independent ALDE MEP

Marian Harkin Marian Harkin (born 26 November 1953) is an Irish Independent politician who has been a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Sligo–Leitrim constituency since the 2020 general election, and previously from 2002 to 2007. She previously served as a Membe ...

and Jim Higgins of Fine Gael, while the Fianna Fáil seat was retained by former MEP

Pat "the Cope" Gallagher Pat "the Cope" Gallagher ( ir, Pádraig Ó Gallchóir; born 10 March 1948) is a former Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as Leas-Cheann Comhairle of Dáil Éireann from 2016 to 2020 and as a Minister of State from 1987 to 1994 and from 20 ...

. In South,

Brian Crowley Brian Donal Crowley (born 4 March 1964) is an Irish former Fianna Fáil politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the South constituency from 1994 to 2019. He served as a Senator from 1993 to 1994, after being n ...

of Fianna Fáil was re-elected, Seán Kelly won a seat from his Fine Gael colleague Colm Burke, and Labour's Alan Kelly took the last seat in a tight contest between him,

's Toiréasa Ferris and the incumbent

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

Kathy Sinnott Kathy Sinnott (; born 29 September 1950) is a disability rights activist and politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the South constituency from 2004 to 2009. Early life Sinnott was born in Chicago, Illinois, in ...

in the final count.

Constituency changes

In accordance with the terms of the

Treaty of Nice The Treaty of Nice was signed by European leaders on 26 February 2001 and came into force on 1 February 2003. It amended the Maastricht Treaty (or the Treaty on European Union) and the Treaty of Rome (or the Treaty establishing the European C ...

, the number of MEPs from Ireland in the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

was reduced from 13 to 12 for this election. The Dublin constituency was reduced from 4 seats to 3, and the counties of Longford and

Westmeath "Noble above nobility" , image_map = Island of Ireland location map Westmeath.svg , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Ireland , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 = , subdivis ...

were transferred from the East constituency to the North-West constituency. The election was conducted under the

single transferable vote Single transferable vote (STV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which voters cast a single vote in the form of a ranked-choice ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vote may be transferred according to alternate ...

in Ireland; the only other constituencies to elect their MEPs under STV are

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

and

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

, with the rest of Europe using variants of the list system.

Results

MEPs elected

Voting details

References

External links

European Elections 2009 in IrelandElectionsIreland.org – 2009 European Parliament (Ireland) election results
{{DEFAULTSORT:European Parliament Election, 2009 (Ireland) European European

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

European Parliament elections in the Republic of Ireland