There were two Governments of the 16th Dáil, which was elected at the general election held on 5 March 1957. The outgoing minority coalition government of Fine Gael, the Labour Party and Clann na Talmhan had failed to be returned. The 8th Government of Ireland (20 March 1957 – 23 June 1959) was led by Éamon de Valera as Taoiseach, and the 9th Government of Ireland (23 June 1959 – 11 November 1961) was led by Seán Lemass as Taoiseach. Both were single-party Fianna Fáil governments.