Pat Rabbitte - Labour Party Leader and Aftermath

Labour Party Leader and Aftermath

Following the 1997 general election the Rainbow Coalition lost power. The following year saw a merger between the Labour Party and Democratic Left, with Rabbitte participating in the negotiations. In October 2002 Rabbitte succeeded Ruairi Quinn as the new leader of the Labour Party. Under his leadership the party has made some gains in the local elections of 2004. Rabbitte has been described as an extremely good performer in the Dáil, often outshining his Fine Gael counterpart Enda Kenny. He is also noted for his anti-Fianna Fáil rhetoric.

Under Rabbitte the Labour Party agreed to enter a pre-election pact with Fine Gael in an attempt to offer the electorate an alternative coalition government at the 2007 general election, which took place in May 2007. This was commonly known as 'The Mullingar Accord' and the proposed alternative government was called 'The Alliance for change'. The Green Party were also anticipated to be likely members of the coalition government on the basis of agreed points of view on many issues covered by the Mullingar Accord.

This move is rumoured to have caused some tension in the parliamentary party, as some members would prefer not to be aligned with any party in advance of an election. The election result did not return a sufficient number of seats for the Alliance for Change to occupy government, even with the support of the Green Party. Rabbitte himself commented on the election result: "This leaves Mr. Ahern in the driving seat". Negotiations between Fianna Fáil and the Green Party resulted in a government being formed on 13 June 2007.

Following the disappointing result in the election for Labour, Rabbitte announced he was stepping down as leader on 23 August 2007. He said in his resignation statement. that he took responsibility for the outcome of the recent general election, in which his party failed to gain new seats and failed to replace the outgoing government. He was succeeded as party leader by Eamon Gilmore.

Rabbitte gained strong public attention on 18 November 2010 when he angrily criticised the Minister for Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs, Pat Carey, when they appeared together on the Prime Time television programme. A recording of the outburst on the Internet was viewed 100,000 times in its first three days there.

Rabbitte was re-elected on the first count in the 2011 general election. His running mate Eamonn Maloney was also elected. On 9 March 2011, he was appointed as Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources.