Rabbitte became involved in electoral politics for the first time in late 1982, when he unsuccessfully contested Dublin South-West for the Workers' Party (WP) at the November general election.

In 1992, Rabbitte played a prominent role with Proinsias De Rossa in an attempt to jettison some of the party's more hard-left positions.

In 1994, a new Rainbow Coalition government of Fine Gael, the Labour Party and Democratic Left came to office midway through the Dáil term.

[9] During his tenure as a junior minister, Rabbitte was involved in establishing an anti-drugs strategy as well as enacting legislation which gave the credit union movement more authority.

[citation needed] 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.

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.

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 gained 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 Prime Time.

[13] The journalist Fintan O'Toole, writing in The Irish Times in August 2011, criticised the lack of royalties system for gas and oil in Ireland.

[15] Rabbitte's response was in turn criticised by Cian O'Callaghan, a Labour Party member of Fingal County Council, as "misguided".