Recently, ALDE Party Vice-President and former Irish MP Timmy Dooley stopped by the ALDE Party Headquarters to talk about the results of the Irish elections. The event was moderated by Carmen Descamps, European Affairs Manager for the Friedrich Naumann Foundation.

The event kicked off with Dooley giving a recap of the election results, with ALDE member party Fianna Fáil winning the most seats at 38, populist party Sinn Féin gaining the most number of seats for a total of 37 seats, and outgoing ruling party Fine Gael ending with 35 seats. 80 seats are needed for a majority, meaning that at least 3 parties will need to form a coalition together, a task that will prove difficult given the ideological differences between the main parties.

Dooley then spoke about what motivated Irish voters in this election, specifically citing a shortage of affordable housing and long wait times for medical care. The previous government in Ireland struggled to find a way to disperse the benefits of a rebounded Irish economy back to the people after the global financial crisis of 2008. This will again be a key issue for the incoming government to address, but could still prove difficult given the different approaches these political parties have to these issues.

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