REACTION:FINE GAEL leader Enda Kenny has said it took the party many years to win back seats and votes taken from it by the PDs.
In a statement responding to the decision by the PDs to begin winding up, Mr Kenny said the party had become an integral part of the Irish landscape and its success had a commensurate adverse effect on Fine Gael.
"I know it must be a very difficult time for the people that have been the life blood of the PDs and who over the years were an important piece of the political jigsaw in Ireland."
He said the party had been formed out of "a sense of concern and resentment" towards the then direction of Fianna Fáil.
"They championed issues like low taxation and also took a commendably clear line on issues relating to Northern Ireland.
"There was a genuine sense of excitement in political circles at the time of the foundation of the PDs, an excitement that proved difficult ultimately to sustain."
Mr Kenny also accepted that the party's rise had had an impact on Fine Gael, but said that had been completely reversed in 2007.
"I was very pleased that at the last general election the Fine Gael party succeeded in winning 20 extra seats, including a very important six from the PDs."
Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said the people who wound up the PDs were the voters at the last general election. "Personally, I wish them well, but I think there was an inevitability about if after the general election. Their party leadership said they weren't viable and I think that's the case."
Mr Gilmore, who was speaking before he addressed the Labour Youth conference, said "the Reagan/Thatcher economic model which the PDs were the main proponents of here had also come to an end. So it's an interesting kind of coincidence that their political demise coincides with the end of their political philosophy."
He believed "the level of support the PDs have at the moment is so small that I don't think it's going to make a huge impact on any political party".
He added: "Any member of the PDs who subscribes to the Labour Party's outlook is more than welcome to come our way."
Labour health spokeswoman Jan O'Sullivan said "their two TDs didn't want to be there anymore".
"But also their basic policies - if you want to call them neo-liberal right-wing policies - brought us too far down the road of putting all our eggs into the basket of lower taxes.
"In the end the market doesn't solve everything, and we're now reaping the fruits of that, of not looking more closely at our society as well as our economy."