Allegations of dishonesty at the Beef Tribunal forced Desmond O'Malley and his party to part ways with Albert Reynolds's Fianna Fáil.

Both Albert Reynolds and John Bruton of Fine Gael were fighting their first general election as leader of their respective parties.

Many political pundits had predicted that Fianna Fáil would not be re-elected and that a "Rainbow Coalition" involving Fine Gael, the Labour Party and possibly Democratic Left would be formed.

Opinion polls showed that if a "Rainbow Coalition" came to power, Dick Spring of the Labour Party was seen as a better potential Taoiseach than Bruton.

The Labour Party recorded its best ever result, an event dubbed the "Spring Tide" and more than doubled its number of seats.

Talks between Fine Gael and Labour on establishing a minority government floundered after several weeks, partly over the issue of the "revolving Taoiseach".

The coalition deal proved very unpopular with many of Labour's supporters, because Dick Spring had campaigned heavily against Fianna Fáil and particularly Albert Reynolds.