Fine Gael

W. T. Cosgrave

Eoin O'Duffy

Frank MacDermot

James Dillon

Cosgrave, O'Duffy, MacDermot, and Dillon brought 3 political groups together to form Fine Gael in 1933

Fine Gael was created in 1933 following the merger of 3 political organisations; Cumann na nGaedhael led by W. T. Cosgrave, the National Centre Party led by Frank MacDermot and James Dillon, and the National Guard (better known as the Blueshirts), led by Eoin O'Duffy. Cumann na nGaedhael, born out of the pro-Anglo-Irish Treaty side in the Irish Civil War, had been the party of government from the creation of the Irish Free State in 1922 until the 1932 general election, when it was forced out by the newly emergent Fianna Fáil. The National Centre Party was a newly created party that had done well at the '32 election representing the interests of Irish farmers. The National Guard were not a political party, but a militant group made up of former pro-treaty soldiers first known as the Army Comrades Association. Following the disruption of Cumann na nGaedhael meetings by members of the Irish Republican Army, the ACA had begun providing security at their events.[44] This led to the leadership of the ACA being taken over by a number of CnaG TDs including Thomas F. O'Higgins.[44] In early 1933 Eoin O'Duffy took over the ACA, renamed them the National Guard and began instilling on the organisation elements of European Fascism.[45] However, by August 1933 the Fianna Fáil government had banned the National Guard fearing a planned parade in Dublin could be an attempt to emulate the March on Rome.[44]

It was following this, in September 1933, that the three groups combined forces and merged to form Fine Gael. The National Guard (referred informally by this point as "the Blueshirts") were to serve as the young wing of the new party as "The League of Youth". In order to not appear as a simple continuation of Cumann na nGaedhael, Eoin O'Duffy was made leader of the new party. However, following poor results at the 1934 Irish local elections and increasingly rabid rhetoric, O'Duffy resigned from the leadership after the party attempted to control what he could say in public and was replaced by WT Cosgrave, with James Dillon made deputy leader. O'Duffy attempted to regain control of the Blueshirts, but was rebuffed by the majority of the members who choose to stay with Fine Gael. Under the stewardship of Cosgrave and Dillon, the party returned to the more traditional conservatism espoused by Cumann na nGaedhael, with the moribund League of Youth disbanded by 1936.[44][46]

Garret FitzGerald was credited as having a liberalising effect on the party in the 1980s

Fine Gael remained out of government and at a low ebb for a prolonged period until the aftermath of the 1948 general election, which saw the party form a grand coalition with several other parties in order to oust Fianna Fáil and place Fine Gael member John A. Costello as Taoiseach. The coalition was short-lived but revived again between 1954 and 1957. However, following this stint Fine Gael were once again sent into the political wilderness. The party went through a period of soul-searching during the 1960s, in which a new generation of Fine Gael politicians led by Declan Costello sought to revitalise Fine Gael with new ideas. In what has later been hailed as a landmark moment in Fine Gael history, Costello proposed moving the party to the left in a social democratic direction with a document entitled "Towards a Just Society". The document was adopted as the basis for the party's manifesto for the 1965 Irish general election; however, when the party failed to make headway at the polls the momentum behind the Just Society document wilted and faded.[47][48][49]

It was not until leader Liam Cosgrave secured an election pact with the Labour Party that Fine Gael returned to power in 1973. This period also saw Fine Gael becoming increasingly liberal in ethos, particularly under the leadership of Garret FitzGerald who took the reins of the party in 1977;[50] It was during this time that Fine Gael campaigned in a number of referendums: the party supported Irish entry into the European Economic Community, supported dropping the voting age from 21 to 18, and supported a proposal to remove the "special position" of the Roman Catholic Church from the constitution. It was successful in all three of these campaigns. The party also began a liberal approach to the introduction of contraceptives (Birth control) to Ireland, although an attempt by the Fine Gael/Labour coalition to legalise contraceptives in 1974 stumbled after six members of Fine Gael, most prominently then Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave, voted against their own bill.[51]

The arrangement between Fine Gael and Labour proved pleasing to both parties and their election pacts remained throughout the rest of the 1970s and into the 1980s, seeing the pair enter government a number of times together.[50] In 1985, Fine Gael/Labour voted to vastly liberalise access to contraceptives.[52] That same year FitzGerald signed the Anglo-Irish Agreement with Margaret Thatcher, paving the way to devolved government in Northern Ireland.[52] In 1986 the party campaigned for a Yes in that year's referendum on legalising divorce, but the No side won by a margin of 0.5%.[52]

The 1980s had proven fruitful electorally for Fine Gael, but the 1990s and early 2000s saw this momentum decline quickly. One of the first signs of this was the party's poor result in the 1990 Irish presidential election, in which their candidate Austin Currie only secured 17% of the initial vote. Although the party was able to form the government between 1994 and 1997 thanks to coalition partners the Labour Party and the Democratic Left, as well as legalise divorce in 1995 after a successful referendum, the party's share of TDs fell from 54 in 1997[53] to only 31[54] in the 2002 general election, its second-worst result ever at that point. It was at this point Enda Kenny took over leadership of the party and began the process of rebuilding it. At the 2007 general election Kenny was able to bring Fine Gael back to its 1997 levels with 51 TDs.[55]

The collapse of the Celtic Tiger resulted in the post-2008 Irish economic downturn, which threw Ireland not only into economic turmoil but also political upheaval. The 2011 Irish general election saw the governing Fianna Fáil collapse at the polls,[56] while Fine Gael and the Labour Party returned with their best results ever.[56][57] For the first time in its history, Fine Gael became the largest party in Dáil Eireann. Once more Fine Gael and Labour paired up to form a government, their tenure marked by the difficulty of trying to guide Ireland towards economic recovery. In 2013, a number of Fine Gael parliamentary party members, including Lucinda Creighton, were expelled from the party for defing the party whip on anti-abortion grounds to oppose the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill.[58] These members subsequently formed a political party called Renua.[58]

Leo Varadkar, Leader of Fine Gael since 2017

In 2015, the Fine Gael/Labour government held a referendum on the legislation of gay marriage in Ireland. The government campaigned for a yes vote and were successful.[59] Following the 2016 general election, Fine Gael retained control of the government as a minority government, made possible by a confidence and supply agreement with Fianna Fáíl, who agreed to abstain in confidence votes.[60] Enda Kenny resigned as party leader in 2017,[61] and following a leadership contest, Leo Varadkar became his successor as well as Taoiseach.[62] In doing so, Varadkar became one of the first openly LGBT heads of government in the world.[63] In 2018 the Fine Gael government held a referendum on the Eighth Amendment, the provision in the Irish constitution which forbid abortion. The party campaigned to repeal the amendment and were successful.[64]

After the 2020 general election, for the first time in history, Fine Gael entered into a coalition government with its traditional rival Fianna Fáil, as well as the Green Party, with Leo Varadkar serving as Tánaiste.[65]

Fine Gael adopted the "Just Society" policy statement in the 1960s, based on principles of social justice and equality. It was created by the emerging social democratic wing of the party, led by Declan Costello. The ideas expressed in the policy statement had a significant influence on the party in the years to come.[77]

While Fine Gael was traditionally socially conservative for most of the twentieth century due to the conservative Christian ethos of Irish society during this time, its members are variously influenced by social liberalism, social democracy and Christian democracy on issues of social policy. Under Garret FitzGerald, the party's more socially liberal, or pluralist, wing gained prominence. Proposals to allow divorce were put to referendum by two Fine Gael–led governments, in 1986 under FitzGerald,[78] and in 1995 under John Bruton, passing very narrowly on this second attempt.[79] Its modern supporters have shown a preference for postmaterialist values.[80][81][82]

Members of Fine Gael participating in the 2016 Dublin Pride parade

Fine Gael supported civil unions for same-sex couples from 2003, voting for the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Bill 2010, and the party approved a motion at its 2012 Ardfheis to prioritise the consideration of same-sex marriage in the upcoming constitutional convention. In 2013 party leader and Taoiseach Enda Kenny declared his support for same-sex marriage. The Fine Gael-led government held a referendum on the subject on 22 May 2015. The referendum passed, with the electorate voting to extend full marriage rights to same-sex couples, with 62.1% in favour and 37.9% opposed.

In 2015, months before the marriage equality referendum, Leo Varadkar became the first Irish government minister to come out as gay.[83] In May 2019, former Rose of Tralee Maria Walsh, was elected as a Fine Gael MEP for the Midlands-Northwest constituency in the 2019 European Parliament election, running alongside Mairéad McGuinness MEP. Walsh was Fine Gael's first openly lesbian candidate.[84][85]

Fine Gael has an LGBT+ section, Fine Gael LGBT, and in 2017, Leo Varadkar became the first Taoiseach to march in Dublin's Pride Parade.[86]

In 1983, having initially supported the proposal, Fine Gael came out in opposition to the Eighth Amendment to the Irish Constitution that was being submitted in a referendum in 1983, which sought to introduce a constitutional prohibition on abortion. Under then leader and Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald it campaigned for a 'No' vote, arguing, on the advice of the Attorney General Peter Sutherland, that the wording, which had been drafted under the previous government, when analysed was ambiguous and open to many interpretations.[87] This referendum resulted in the Eighth Amendment to the Irish constitution, giving the unborn child a qualified[88] equal right to life to that of the mother.[89] Its stance conflicted with that of the Pro-Life Amendment Campaign (PLAC) and Catholic bishops, and Fianna Fáil, the largest party in the State at the time, but then in opposition.

The party also campaigned against the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the Constitution in 2002, which proposed to remove suicide as a grounds for granting a termination of a pregnancy. Suicide had been ruled as a ground, under the 8th amendment, in the X Case judgement of the Irish Supreme Court. The amendment was rejected by Irish voters.[90]

In 2013 it proposed, and supported, the enactment of the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013, which implemented in statute law the X case ruling of the Irish Supreme Court, granting access to a termination of a pregnancy where there is a real and substantial risk to the life, not the health, of the mother, including a threat of suicide. Five TDs & two Senators, including Minister of State Lucinda Creighton, lost the Fine Gael party whip for voting against the legislation. Creighton later left Fine Gael to found Renua.[91][92] The Act was criticised by various anti-abortion groups[93] and Catholic bishops, but supported by a majority of the electorate in opinion polls, with many indicating they wished to see a more liberal law on abortion.[94]

Enda Kenny's Fine Gael–led minority government took office after the 2016 election with a programme which promised a randomly selected Citizens' Assembly to report on possible changes to the Eighth Amendment, which would be considered by an Oireachtas committee, to whose report the government would respond officially in debates in both houses of the Oireachtas. Fine Gael Oireachtas members were promised a free vote on the issue. Leo Varadkar succeeded Enda Kenny as Taoiseach on 14 June 2017 and promised to hold a referendum on abortion in 2018.[95] Several Fine Gael TDs, notably Health Minister Simon Harris and Kate O'Connell, were prominent supporters of the pro-choice side before and during the referendum. While the party was divided, the majority of Fine Gael TDs and Senators, as well as most members, were in favour of repealing the Eighth Amendment. A referendum to repeal the Eighth Amendment was held on 25 May 2018 and was passed by 66.4% of voters.

The party has traditionally held a strong stance against the decriminalisation of drugs. In 2007, Fine Gael's leader at the time Enda Kenny called for drug and alcohol testing to be performed in schools, saying cocaine usage at schools was "rampant" in some areas.[96]

At the party's 2014 Ard Fheis, a proposed motion to support the legalisation of cannabis was voted down by the membership.[97]

In 2016, the Fine Gael health minister James Reilly said that they would not be changing their policy on the legalisation of cannabis, due to "serious concerns about the health impacts" of cannabis.[98]

Fine Gael has, since its inception, portrayed itself as a party of fiscal rectitude and minimal government interference in economics, advocating pro-enterprise policies. In that they followed the line of the previous pro-Treaty government that believed in minimal state intervention, low taxes and social expenditures.[99] Newly elected politicians for the party in the Dáil have strongly advocated liberal economic policies. Lucinda Creighton (who has since left the party) and Leo Varadkar in particular have been seen as strong advocates of a neoliberal approach to Ireland's economic woes and unemployment problems.[100] Varadkar in particular has been a strong proponent of small, indigenous business, advocating that smaller firms should benefit from the government's recapitalisation program.[101] Its former finance spokesman Richard Bruton's proposals have been seen as approaching problems from a pro-enterprise point of view. Its fairer budget website in 2011 suggested that its solutions are "tough but fair".[102] Other solutions conform generally to conservative governments' policies throughout Europe, focusing on cutting numbers in the public sector, while maintaining investment in infrastructure.

Fine Gael's proposals have sometimes been criticised mostly by smaller political groupings in Ireland, and by some of the trade unions, who have raised the idea that the party's solutions are more conscious of business interests than the interests of the worker. The SIPTU trade union has stated its opposition to the Taoiseach Enda Kenny's assertion, in response to Ireland's economic crisis, that the national wage agreement should be suspended. Kenny's comments had support however and the party attributes its significant rise in polls in 2008 to this.[103]

Fine Gael's Simon Coveney launched what the party termed a radical re-organisation of the Irish semi-state company sector. Styled the New Economy and Recovery Authority (or NewERA), Coveney said that it is an economic stimulus plan that will "reshape the Irish economy for the challenges of the 21st century".[104] Requiring an €18.2 billion investment in Energy, Communications and Water infrastructure over a four-year period, it was promoted as a way to enhance energy security and digital reputation of Ireland. A very broad ranging document, it proposed the combined management of a portfolio of semi-state assets, and the sale of all other, non-essential services. The release of equity through the sale of the various state resources, including electricity generation services belonging to the ESB, Bord na Móna and Bord Gáis, in combination with use of money in the National Pensions Reserve Fund, was Fine Gael's proposed funding source for its national stimulus package.[105]

The plan was seen at being the basis of a Fine Gael program for government. Seen as being the longer term contribution to Fine Gael's economic plan, it has been publicised in combination with a more short term policy proposal from Leo Varadkar. This document, termed "Hope for a Lost Generation", promises to bring 30,000 young Irish people off the Live Register in a year by combining a National Internship Program, a Second Chance Education Scheme, an Apprenticeship Guarantee and Community Work Program, as well as instituting a German style, Workshare program.[106]

The debate which has been monitored by the Irish Times in its Renewing the Republic opinion pieces, has largely centred on the make up of the Oireachtas, the Irish parliament. Fine Gael's Phil Hogan TD, a former European Commissioner, has published the party's proposals for political and constitutional reform. In a policy document entitled New Politics, Hogan suggested creating a country with "a smaller, more dynamic and more responsive political system," reducing the size of the Dáil by 20, changing the way the Dáil works, and in a controversial move, abolishing the Irish senate, Seanad Éireann.[107]

Aiming to carry out the parties proposals through a series of constitutional referendums, the proposals were echoed by then Labour leader Eamon Gilmore, when he proposed his own constitutional "crusade" at his 2010 party conference, shortly after.[108]

Previous logos of Fine Gael

c. 1970s

c. 1980s

c. 1990s

The Irish health system, being administered centrally by the Health Service Executive, is seen to be poor by comparison to other countries in Europe, ranking outside expected levels at 25th according to the Euro Health Consumer Index 2006.[109]

Fine Gael has long wanted Ireland to break with the system of private health insurance, public medical cards and what it calls the two tiers of the health system and has launched a campaign to see the system reformed. Speaking in favour of the campaign, Fine Gael then health spokesman James Reilly stated "Over the last 10 years the health service has become a shambles. We regularly have over 350 people on trolleys in A&E, waiting lists that go on for months, outpatient waiting lists that go on for years and cancelled operations across the country..."[110]

Fine Gael launched its FairCare campaign and website in April 2009, which stated that the health service would be reformed away from a costly ineffective endeavour, into a publicly regulated system where compulsory universal health insurance would replace the existing provisions.[111]

This strategy was criticised by Fianna Fáil's then-Minister for Children, Barry Andrews. The spokesperson for family law and children, Alan Shatter TD, robustly defended its proposals as the only means of reducing public expenditure, and providing a service in Ireland more akin to the Canadian, German, Dutch and Austrian health systems.

Fine Gael's current healthcare policy revolves around the implementation of Sláintecare, a cross-party plan for the reform of the Irish health system. Sláintecare is focused on introducing "a universal single-tiered health service, which guarantees access based on need, not income… through Universal Health Insurance".[112]

Fine Gael is among the most pro-European integration parties in Ireland, having supported the European Constitution,[113] the Lisbon Treaty, and advocating participation in European common defence.[114] The party have been supportive of NATO. In 1998, party leader John Bruton called on Ireland to join the NATO-led Partnership for Peace.[115] The party's youth wing, Young Fine Gael, passed a motion in 2016 calling on the government to apply for membership of NATO.[116]

Under Enda Kenny, the party called on the state to end Irish neutrality and to sign up for a European defence structure,[117] with Kenny claiming that "the truth is, Ireland is not neutral. We are merely unaligned."[113] Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Fine Gael called for an increase in defence spending,[118] with Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney suggesting Ireland needed a "fundamental rethink" of its security approach[119] and proposing an increase of €500 million a year on defence spending.[120]

Since Brexit, Fine Gael has taken a strong pro-European stance, stating that Ireland's place is "at the heart of Europe".[121] In government, the party has launched the "Global Ireland" plan to develop alliances with other small countries across Europe and the world.[122]

The following are the terms of office as party leader, and as Taoiseach (bolded) if applicable:

Leader	Portrait	Period	Constituency	Periods in office (Taoiseach unless otherwise noted)
Eoin O'Duffy		1933–1934	Monaghan[129]
W. T. Cosgrave		1934–1944	Carlow–Kilkenny	President of the Executive Council (for Cumann na nGaedheal) 1922–1932 (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th Executive Council of the Irish Free State)
Richard Mulcahy		1944–1959[130][131]	Tipperary	John A. Costello as Taoiseach[132] 1948–1951; 1954–1957 (5th and 7th Government of Ireland)
James Dillon		1959–1965	Monaghan
Liam Cosgrave		1965–1977	Dún Laoghaire	1973–1977 (14th Government of Ireland)
Garret FitzGerald		1977–1987	Dublin South-East	1981 – Feb 1982; Nov 1982–1987 (17th and 19th Government of Ireland)
Alan Dukes		1987–1990	Kildare South
John Bruton		1990–2001	Meath	1994–1997 (24th Government of Ireland)
Michael Noonan		2001–2002	Limerick East
Enda Kenny		2002–2017	Mayo	2011–2017 (29th and 30th Government of Ireland)
Leo Varadkar		2017–present	Dublin West	2017–2020; as Tánaiste 2020– (31st and 32nd Government of Ireland)