Irish general election 1982 February: Encyclopedia II - Irish general election 1982 February - Campaign

Irish general election 1982 February - Campaign

The first general election of 1982 was caused by the sudden collapse of the Fine Gael-Labour coalition government when the budget was defeated. The Minister for Finance, John Bruton, attempted to put VAT on children shoes, a measure which was rejected by some left-wing independent TDs. The Taoiseach, Garret FitzGerald, dissolved the Dáil immediately, however, while he was with President Patrick Hillery at Áras an Uachtaráin a number of Fianna Fáil members attempted to ring the President, urging him not to grant a dissolution. If he refused a dissolution FitzGerald would have to resign and Fianna Fáil would be invited to form a government. While the attempt to contact the President was highly unconstitutional, (the President can only take advice from the Taoiseach) a dissolution was granted and the general election campaign began in earnest.

The campaign was largely fought on economic issues. Spending cuts were a reality for whatever party won, but the scale of the cuts were played down by all parties. Fine Gael continued its policies that it had been implementing while in office. Charles Haughey of Fianna Fáil dismissed the budget cuts when the campaign first began, however, the reality soon became apparent and the party adopted similar policies that involved budget cuts.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Campaign", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki