Progressive Democrats

Progressive Democrats, political party founded in 1985 by Desmond O'Malley and other dissident members of (mostly) Fianna Fáil. The party urged neoliberal economic strategies, and a moderate line on the partition question: it proposed that the territorial claim on Northern Ireland in the constitution of 1937 be excised. The PDs achieved massive success at an early stage, carrying fourteen seats in the election of 1987: this total quickly fell to six seats in 1989, when they entered into a coalition government led by Charles Haughey and dominated by Fianna Fáil. In January 1992 the PD ministers helped to force Haughey into resignation; and later that year they removed their support from his successor, Albert Reynolds, finally withdrawing from the coalition government. At the election of November 1992 the party returned ten TDs: but though it was able to maintain this strength until 1997, its place as a junior coalition partner (first to Fianna Fáil and later to Fine Gael) was taken by Labour. Although only four PDs were returned at the general election of 1997, they held a tactically crucial position; and three of these deputies served as ministers in the coalition government led by Bertie Ahern and Fianna Fáil. The main achievements of the party have been to moderate some profligate impulses within Fianna Fáil, and to soften the asperity of its stand on Northern Ireland.

Alvin Jackson