For the first time in the history of the State, a Dáil failed to nominate a Taoiseach after the general election of 1989.
As late as the second day of the count, outgoing Taoiseach Charles Haughey outlined why he was so opposed to any form of coalition:
"I don't think that would be a good solution in this situation.
"Maybe sometime in the future something like that will happen - we've had coalitions before.
"My own statement about that would be that coalitions in our circumstances - whatever about anywhere else, in our circumstances - coalitions do not work, are not satisfactory and have a kind of political paralysis."
A month after the election, Fianna Fáil entered a coalition government with the Progressive Democrats
