[5] The Labour Party formed a coalition Government with Fine Gael and Spring was appointed a junior minister on his first day as a TD.

When Michael O'Leary resigned as party leader after the February 1982 general election, Spring allowed his name to go forward in the leadership contest.

In a reshuffle following the resignation from cabinet of former Labour leader Frank Cluskey in December 1983, Spring was appointed as Minister for Energy.

For Spring, his period in opposition coincided with the exposure of several business scandals and allowed him to shine as a critic of the Fianna Fáil government, led by Charles Haughey.

After some weeks of stalemate, Spring entered negotiations with Albert Reynolds—who had taken over as Taoiseach from Haughey in February 1992—over the Christmas period on a new programme for government.

Spring insisted on a formalised system of programme managers, and state-paid advisers to push the new government's policy platform.

[citation needed] In June 1994, the Labour Party performed disastrously in by-elections in Dublin South-Central and in Cork North-Central.

In late 1994, Reynolds wished to appoint the Attorney General, Harry Whelehan, as President of the High Court, but delayed for over a month.

Spring had reservations about Whelehan being suitable, owing to the alleged laxity of his handling of a particular child abuse criminal case, involving a disgraced Catholic priest.

Democratic Left TD Pat Rabbitte then implied that the Catholic hierarchy was instructing Reynolds to appoint Whelehan.

On the eve of that government being formed, The Irish Times published a report that Ahern knew more about an aspect of the scandal that had brought down Reynolds than had previously been known.

During his period as Foreign Minister, Spring played a role in the Northern Ireland peace process, and along with Reynolds was involved in negotiations leading to the Provisional Irish Republican Army and loyalist ceasefires of 1994.

A front-page editorial in the Irish Independent on the day before the election, entitled "Payback Time" and calling on support for Fianna Fáil, had a direct and severe impact on the Labour Party.

The Independent newspaper group had revealed many scandals involving Labour ministers abusing the perks of office in the year leading up to the election.

The impact of the article is uncertain but the Labour Party suffered significant electoral losses and the outgoing coalition was defeated.

Spring devoted considerable energy and resources towards increasing Ireland's international influence and diplomatic ties in the UN, in the post Cold War world.

Spring got even harsher criticism, for using the Government Jet to reduce journey times between his home in Tralee and his office in Dublin.

[11] Spring brought the Irish Labour Party unprecedented exposure and power in government, at a time when the two significantly larger right-of-centre political blocs had precedence in every election.

Spring received a directorship appointment to the Irish state telecom enterprise, Eircom, in advance of the scheduled privatisation.

As leader of a left-of-centre party, this was to endorse the privatization and gain consent from the labour unions to the privatisation plan.

Spring's low work involvement, and generous remuneration package, were openly described as 'scandalous', by shareholder advocate Senator Shane Ross.

Spring lives in Tralee with his wife Kristi (née Hutcheson), an American whom he met while working in New York as a bartender.