General election 2024: the numbers

the numbers

First-time TDs

A total of 63 TDs are entering the Dáil for the first time. This was partially because there were so many incumbent TDs from Fine Gael who did not run, meaning that a majority (20) of Fine Gael’s 38 TDs are first-time deputies. The youngest TD in the 34th Dáil is Labour’s new member for Cork North-Central, Eoghan Kenny, who, aged 24, is the first TD to have been born in the 21st century.

Being Irish politics, many of these first-time TDs come from political dynasties, such as Emer Currie, daughter of the late former Fine Gael TD and SDLP founder, Austin Currie, and Fianna Fáil’s Séamus McGrath, who won the seat held by his brother Michael, who is now a European Commissioner. However, one new TD who bucks this trend is Fianna Fáil’s Tony McCormack TD, who is County Offaly’s first Fianna Fáil TD not from the Cowen family since 1969.

The 34th Dáil is the largest in the history of the State, with 174 TDs to take their seats in Leinster House, an increase of 14 seats. However, only seven more women have won seats in the Dáil compared to 2020. Sinn Féin has the highest number of female TDs with 16, while Fine Gael has 10, and only six of Fianna Fáil’s 48 TDs are women. In total, 44 (one-quarter) of the 174 TDs are women.

First-time female TDs in bold below.

Full list of first-time TDs

Comeback TDs

A number of former TDs across different parties made comebacks to the Dáil. One, Paul Gogarty TD, is back after a 13-year absence after he was elected as an independent in Dublin Mid-West, but had previously served as a Green Party TD between 2002 and 2011. Another, Pat ‘the Cope’ Gallagher, immediately becomes the oldest TD aged 76, having made his third comeback to the Dáil after losing his seat in 2020.