This was the second front bench appointed by Martin in 10 weeks: on 31 January 2011 he had appointed a team of TDs, senators, councillors and Fianna Fáil election candidates as party spokespersons on different issues in advance of the 2011 general election campaign.
[1] In that campaign six sitting front bench TDs, including the deputy leader Mary Hanafin, were not re-elected.
Positions also reflected the restructuring of government departments by the incoming Fine Gael-Labour Party coalition.
The other parties that occupy the opposition benches include Sinn Féin and the United Left Alliance.
This is due to the existence of the multi-party system where Fine Gael usually forms a coalition with the Labour Party.