Taoiseach Simon Harris has announced the planned date for a general election of 29 November, formally kicking off a truncated three-week long campaign.
After attending an EU leaders briefing in Budapest, he will travel to Áras an Uachtaráin on Friday, to seek the dissolution of the Dáil.
Speaking to RTE News on Wednesday, Mr Harris said: “As I would have discussed with the other coalition leaders, it’s my hope that we will have polling day on this country on November 29.”
He added: “I’m looking forward to the weeks ahead and asking the people of Ireland for a mandate.”
Fine Gael is soaring in the polls since Harris became leader in April, while the opposition Sinn Féin dropped to 16% recently, its lowest level of support since 2019.
Mary Lou McDonald seen as Ireland’s first female Taoiseach in waiting – but is now a virtual afterthought has been battling a serious decline in support for while mired in firefighting a damaging internal scandals, both north and south of the border.
Mr Harris made the announcement last night less than an hour after his coalition partner-turned-campaign rival Micheal Martin revealed that the election would be called on Friday.
Mr Harris could have waited until March when the coalition’s five-year term comes to an end, but he has been paving the way for an election in recent weeks, announcing 10.5bn euros in tax cuts and spending increases last month.
The election will bring to an end the historic coalition that brought together Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, who had been rivals dating back to the civil war.
Micheal Martin, the Fianna Fail leader, took the taoiseach role for the first half of the lifetime of the government, later replaced by then-Fine Gael leader Leo Varadkar.
The last election was successful for Sinn Fein, which had the highest percentage of first-preference votes, but the party has struggled in more recent local and European elections.
