Election campaign to formally start in Ireland with dissolution of Dail

The Irish General Election campaign will formally begin later on Friday when Taoiseach Simon Harris asks the President of Ireland to dissolve the Dail.

The dissolution of the Parliament will trigger the start of what will be a relatively short three-week campaign ahead of polling day on Friday November 29.

Fine Gael leader Mr Harris will go to President Michael D Higgins’s residence at Aras an Uachtarain in Dublin’s Phoenix Park to undertake the formalities required to call an election under the country’s constitution.

It will bring to an end the four-and-a-half-year lifespan of the historic Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and Green Party coalition government.

After the 2020 general election delivered an inconclusive result, Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, two parties forged from opposing sides of Ireland’s Civil War of the 1920s, agreed to set aside almost a century of animosity and share power.

The Green Party joined the administration as a junior partner.

Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin held the position of Taoiseach for the first half of the mandate, with Fine Gael’s Leo Varadkar taking over as premier in December 2022.

Mr Varadkar resigned from the role earlier this year and was succeeded by his party colleague Mr Harris.

Speaking to media in Budapest on Friday morning as he attended a meeting of EU leaders, Mr Harris said he will approach the election campaign with “determination, humility and a real hope that it doesn’t descend into tit for tat”.

Emphasising that as Fine Gael leader he takes nothing for granted, Mr Harris described his team of candidates, which includes a large number of new faces, as offering a mix of experience and energy.

He highlighted housing, immigration and childcare as among the issues that really matter to the Irish people but also urged a broadening of the political debate given world events.

“Up until now, 90% of the debate in Ireland has been about how you’re going to spend the money available to the Government today… dependent on being able to spend that money is being able to generate it, is being able to keep jobs, keep investment, work at an EU level and be prepared for what could be a transatlantic trade shock,” he said.

“That’s why I’m pleased going into this campaign that we have set aside money. We used to be ridiculed for this… well this is exactly why we have the buffer that is there, is a transatlantic shock or indeed any other shock to our economy, my children will never have to experience the austerity that our generation did.”

Tanaiste Mr Martin joined some of his party’s election candidates in Dublin ahead of the formal dissolution.

Speaking outside Leinster House, Mr Martin said the outgoing coalition had “weathered many significant storms and shocks”.

He said the coming five years would also be challenging for the Irish economy, as he highlighted the ongoing impact of conflicts around the world and also the potential for a shift in US trade policy.

“The greatest threat to the Irish economy is external, and we need experience and we need leadership that has already demonstrated its capacity to weather significant events and shocks to lead us through the next challenging five years – and economically, it will be challenging,” he said.

Mr Martin also insisted he was not concerned at the prospect of having to debate with his erstwhile partner in government, Mr Harris, during the election.

“Debate is the lifeblood of democracy and elections,” he said.

“I look forward to the debate because Fianna Fail will be putting forward its priorities, its policies, as we did in the last election.

“We spent a lot of time last time negotiating a programme for government, so I am looking forward to the debates, no worries at all.”

Mr Martin again made clear he would not countenance going into a coalition with Sinn Fein post-election.

Since the 2020 poll, the coalition in Dublin has had to grapple with the same global shocks that confronted many governments around the world – the Covid-19 pandemic and the inflation crisis sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Ireland has also experienced a surge in migration numbers in the last two years, in large part due to the tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees who sought safe haven in the country.

There have also been increased rates of asylum seekers arriving from elsewhere in the world.

This, coupled with post-recession, pre-existing housing shortages, has placed unprecedented strain on state accommodation provision, leading to tensions and disputes in some local areas over plans to repurpose hotels and other buildings into facilities for international protection applicants.

The rise of the migration issue up the political agenda has come at a time when the Government continues to grapple with what itself has acknowledged is a crisis in housing.

Despite the coalition’s efforts to increase the number of state-built homes and promote policies to support renters and first-time buyers, record homelessness figures are still on the rise and house prices and rental costs remain stubbornly high as demand consistently outweighs supply in many areas, particularly in the capital Dublin.

To the Government’s critics, the housing crisis appears paradoxical when set in the context of booming public finances, with the state’s coffers now buoyed each year by billions of euros in tax receipts from multinational giants who have set up bases in Ireland.

The same argument is made when it comes to problems besetting some parts of the country’s health service, such as the lengthy waits endured by children requiring spinal surgery.

The Government parties say real progress has been delivered in housing and healthcare provision during a mandate that ends with the country’s finances in rude health.

Sinn Fein won the popular vote in 2020 but a failure to run enough candidates meant it did not secure sufficient seats in the Dail to give it a realistic chance of forming a government.

The main opposition goes into the election on the back of a difficult number of weeks, having faced intense criticism over its handling of several controversies related to allegations and complaints against party members.

In the last 12 months the party has also seen its poll ratings dip quite significantly, dropping from front runner to leave it trailing behind both Fine Gael and Fianna Fail in a series of recent polls.