Losing your seat.

Gormley85

Suppose you take a party leader- lets say Enda Kenny for the sake of argument.

During the next GE his constituents arent happy and dont re-elect him and he loses his seat.

Does he automatically lose party leader status, or can you have a non-sitting party leader?

Red Alert

Were the greens not in this position?

lottpaul

Each party has slightly different rules but for the larger ones its generally a rule that the leader has to be a TD. Sinn Féin is a notable exception, presumably as they operate on a 32 county basis. The Labour Party leader Frank Cluskey lost his seat in the 1981 General Election and had to resign. The PDs in their day had a Senator as their leader at one point. Generally small parties have to be more flexible whereas the bigger ones have traditionally insisted on membership of the Dáil.

Godge

lottpaul wrote: »

Each party has slightly different rules but for the larger ones its generally a rule that the leader has to be a TD. Sinn Féin is a notable exception, presumably as they operate on a 32 county basis. The Labour Party leader Frank Cluskey lost his seat in the 1981 General Election and had to resign. The PDs in their day had a Senator as their leader at one point. Generally small parties have to be more flexible whereas the bigger ones have traditionally insisted on membership of the Dáil.

For the bigger parties, you have to be a member of the Dail. For Sinn Fein you have to be named Gerry with your surname starting with an A.

In the case of the three big parties, all leaders are at risk. Joan Burton obviously has a fight on her hands. FG traditionally splits the votes in Mayo to maximise seats. That does leave Enda vulnerable to the split going wrong. Similarly Martin in Cork has McGrath in the same constituency, one of them could lose.

gandalf

For the larger parties if their leader lost their seat then they would be expected to stand down as leader.

Sierra Oscar

gandalf wrote: »

For the larger parties if their leader lost their seat then they would be expected to stand down as leader.

They would lose their leadership status automatically if they lost their seat. I know for FF it is a requirement to be a member of the Dáil to be party leader, I assume it is the same with FG & Labour.

micosoft

You don't need to be in the Dail to be a party leader - plenty of parties don't have seats in the Dail so don't have a TD leader. You absolutely must be a member of Dail Eireann to take a statutory position such as Taoiseach.

7 1° The Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the member of the Government who is in charge of the Department of Finance must be members of Dáil Éireann.

Having a party leader who can't speak in the Dail would make it a foolish choice if you had any elected member in the Dail.

The most likely situation would be a leader of a party that is a member of the Seanad. Most likely after an implosion of said party.

Connemara Farmer

There are rumours circulating that Endas seat is not safe. What that's worth is another question, but it is doing the rounds.

Brussels Sprout

Connemara Farmer wrote: »

There are rumours circulating that Endas seat is not safe. What that's worth is another question, but it is doing the rounds.

Not a chance

Connemara Farmer

Brussels Sprout wrote: »

Not a chance

That originated from some quite well connected individuals.

Zubeneschamali

Connemara Farmer wrote: »

That originated from some quite well connected individuals.

They need their heads examined.

Connemara Farmer

Zubeneschamali wrote: »

They need their heads examined.

Well, whatever.

BOHtox

Connemara Farmer wrote: »

Well, whatever.

FG have 4 of the 5 seats in Mayo. Kenny was elected on the first count with over 5000 more votes than the quota, Michael Ring was also elected on the first count well above the quota. Kenny has been a TD in the constituency since 1975 and his father before him was a TD for over 20 years. There's been a Kenny seat in Mayo since 1954. FG also amassed 65% of the total first preferences in the Mayo constituency in 2011. At the most conservative guess, FG have 3 seats in Mayo going in to the next election, and more than likely 4 and Kenny's is the safest of them all.

gizmo555

Connemara Farmer wrote: »

There are rumours circulating that Endas seat is not safe. What that's worth is another question, but it is doing the rounds.

No TD will ever admit his seat is safe. The rumours are probably being spread by his own people.