Brendan Ryan (Labour)

There is no disputing that Labour's experience in coalition with Fianna Fáil meant that it achieved even more success in its later coalition with Fine Gael, which is possibly a less exuberant and irrational party than Fianna Fáil. Both coalition Governments were successful and political scientists will be preoccupied for many years with the intriguing question of how this latter Government lost the 1997 general election.