Politics

Fianna Fáil seeking to reclaim old Leinster House meeting rooms from Fine Gael

Party requests return to coveted fifth-floor meeting rooms, which it lost in 2011, now its Dáil numbers have risen

Tánaiste and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin and his 47 TDs met at Leinster House on Wednesday for the first time after the general election. Photograph: Alan Betson
Tánaiste and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin and his 47 TDs met at Leinster House on Wednesday for the first time after the general election. Photograph: Alan Betson
Cormac McQuinn
Thu Dec 05 2024 - 16:52

Fianna Fáil is seeking to reclaim its old party meeting rooms in Leinster House from Fine Gael after a general election result in which it won 10 more Dáil seats than its rival.

Tánaiste Micheál Martin’s party lost the coveted meeting rooms on the fifth floor — which it had used since the 1960s — after its disastrous 2011 election performance when the party returned with just 20 seats.

However, with 48 TDs elected last week, and the prospect of more senators to follow, Fianna Fáil is seeking to be returned to its old meeting rooms.

The Irish Times understands the issue was discussed at a meeting between officials from political parties and the Houses of the Oireachtas and that Fianna Fáil’s request to move meeting rooms was initiated on Thursday.

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Fianna Fáil declined to comment on the matter.

It is unclear whether Fine Gael will resist the request. A party source said: “I don’t think the allocation of party rooms is the most important thing to the people that voted last Friday.”

Fianna Fáil held its first parliamentary party meeting of the new Dáil on Wednesday.

Afterwards, Mr Martin said it had been “a good gathering” and “certainly it reflected the success we’ve had in the general election with the increase in seats”.

“It’s only when you see everybody in the room, not everybody was in the room, but we actually ran out of seats with the numbers that we now have,” he added. “And if I cast my mind back to a meeting we had in Tallaght in the aftermath of the 2011 general election, when we had essentially 20 or 19 members attending on that occasion, we’ve come on a significant journey from then.”

Cormac McQuinn

Cormac McQuinn

Cormac McQuinn is a Political Correspondent at The Irish Times