A Description of the 31st Dail.

If you arrange the Dail according to year of entry to the Dail you find that the
largest group is of those who were elected in 2011. This points to a considerable
change in voting patterns. The large cohort of new TDs illustrates the large
amount of incumbents who either did not stand for election or were defeated by
challengers. Among Fianna Fail TDs the largest cohort of TDs entered the Dail in
1997. This is in stark contrast to every other party in the Dail where the largest
cohort is of TDs elected in 2011 election. While the other parties and grouping
are dominated by new TDs Fianna Fail is dominated by incumbent TDs.

Within the ranks of Fianna Fail there are five former ministers. Fianna Fail have
the largest amount of TDs who were ever ministers. Considering that prior to the
election the majority of the fifteen member cabinet was fianna Fail TDs it poor
number of former ministers. Out of twelve Fianna Fail ministers in the former
cabinet only five have returned to the thirty-first Dail. Fine Gael has three former
ministers in its ranks. They have been out of power for fourteen years and most
former Fine Gael ministers have retired from Irish politics. Like wise for he
Labour party most of it’s former ministers have retired from politics. Among the
independents there is one former minister, Micheal Lowry who had been a Fine
Gael minister.

There are twenty-six women in the Dail. This is sixteen per cent of the Dail. In
absolute terms Fine Gael has the most female TDs. Fine Gael has female twelve
TDs. The next party is Labour with eight TDs. Among the independent TDs there
are two women TDs. The people before profit have one female TD. Fianna Fail is
conspicuous in its failure to have any women TDs among its ranks. People before
Profit has no female TDs1. Sinn Fein has three female TDs. In percentage terms
the though the Labour party is in the lead. Twenty two per cent of Labour TDs
are women compared to sixteen per cent of Fine Gael TDs and twenty per cent of
Sinn Fein TDs.

The average age of the thirty-first Dail is fifty-one. The oldest TD was born in
1945 and the youngest was born in 1981 giving a range of thirty-eight. Fianna
Fail has an average age of fifty a year young than the Dail average. The oldest
Fianna Fail TD was born in 1945 and the youngest was born in 1977. This is a
age range of thirty-two years.
The oldest Fine Geal TD was born in 1943 and the youngest was born in 1980.
There is a age range in Fine Gael parliamentary party of thirty-seven years. The
average age in the Fine Gael party is fifty-one years, which is the same as the Dail
average. The oldest Labour party TD was born in 1944 and the youngest in 1981.
This gives an age range of thirty-seven years. The average age in the Labour
party is fifty-two years.
The oldest independent TD was born in 1949 and the youngest was born in 1975
giving a age range of twenty-six years. Taking independents as a group they have
a narrowest age difference between themselves in the Dail. But they are, on
average, the joint oldest with Sinn Fein. The average age of independent TDs is
fifty-three.
1
I have not corrected the information given.
Sinn Fein has average age of fifty-three. The oldest Sinn Fein TD was born in
1948 and the youngest was born in 1977. The party has an age range of twenty-
nine years.
Seamus Healy representing the Workers and Unemployed Action Group is sixty-
one and is the only member of his party represented in the Dail.