Labour learns strategy lesson to take most seats in party’s history

DESPITE winning an almost identical first preference share to the Spring Tide of 1992, the Labour Party has made a far more forceful breakthrough this time.

Eamon Gilmore’s team received 19.4% of the vote on Friday, 0.09% above Dick Spring’s tally, but Labour will enter the 31st Dáil with at least three more seats than its high water mark of 19 years ago. It will be the second-biggest party in the Dáil, with a guaranteed 36 seats and two more the subject of recounts.

It has found new figures to replace old forces and is now the largest political organisation in Dublin.