Progressive Democrats
Election Seats won ± Position First Pref votes % Government Leader
1987 14 / 166 14 3rd 210,583 11.8% Opposition Desmond O'Malley
1989 6 / 166 8 5th 91,013 5.5% Coalition ( FF-PD ) Desmond O'Malley
1992 10 / 166 4 4th 80,787 4.7% Opposition Desmond O'Malley
1997 4 / 166 6 4th 83,765 4.7% Coalition ( FF-PD ) Mary Harney
2002 8 / 166 4 4th 73,628 4.0% Coalition ( FF-PD ) Mary Harney
2007 2 / 166 6 6th 56,396 2.73% Coalition ( FF-GP-PD ) Michael McDowell
General election results
The Progressive Democrats (Irish: An Páirtí Daonlathach, literally The Democratic Party, PDs) was a conservative-liberal political party in the Republic of Ireland. Launched on 21 December 1985 by Desmond O'Malley and other politicians who had split from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, the Progressive Democrats took liberal positions on divorce, contraception, and other social issues. The party also supported economic liberalisation, advocating measures such as lower taxation, fiscal conservatism, privatisation, and welfare reform. It enjoyed an impressive début at the 1987 general election, winning 14 seats in Dáil Éireann and capturing almost 12 per cent of the popular vote to temporarily surpass the Labour Party as Ireland's third-largest political party. Although the Progressive Democrats never again won more than 10 seats in the Dáil, they formed coalition governments with Fianna Fáil during the 26th Dáil (1989-92), the 28th Dáil (1997-2002), the 29th Dáil (2002-07) and the 30th Dail (2007-09). These successive years as the government's junior coalition partner gave the party an influence on Irish politics and economics disproportionate to its small size. In particular, the party has been credited with shaping the low-tax, pro-business environment that contributed to Ireland's Celtic Tiger economic boom during the 1990s and 2000s, as well as blamed for contributing to the subsequent Irish financial and economic crisis. On 8 November 2008 the party began the process of disbanding, and was formally dissolved on 20 November 2009. The two Progressive Democrat politicians elected to the 30th Dáil, Mary Harney and Noel Grealish, continued to support the government as independent TDs, and Mary Harney also continued as Minister for Health and Children. The party was a member of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party (ELDR). Its youth wing was the Young Progressive Democrats.