General election set for November 29

The Dublin government is to officially call a general election on Friday as it pushed €400m into bank accounts in a bid to convince voters to ignore deepening crises in housing, inequality, health, child welfare, immigration, political greed and corruption.

Taoiseach Simon Harris could have waited until March to go to the polls but on Wednesday he announced the planned date for the general election to be November 29, a date already mentioned by his coalition partners in the Green Party.

After refusing to admit the election date for weeks, the Fine Gael leader made the announcement less than an hour after his coalition partner, Fianna Fáil leader, Micheál Martin, revealed that parliament would be dissolved and the election officially called on Friday.

Election posters have already been sneaked up, but the campaign will formally begin when Harris travels to Áras an Uachtaráin on Friday, the official residence of the President of Ireland, to seek the dissolution of the Dáil.

It will be the first time the historic coalition that brought together Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, who had been rivals dating back to the civil war a century ago, will seek re-election.

The coalition parties have been greasing the path for an election in recent weeks with a giveaway budget of €10.5bn in tax cuts and spending increases.

The government is dishing out cash to almost two million people, led by a double child benefit payment which is going into accounts this week and will see the average family with two kids being paid €580. A second payment will follow.

The unprecedented double-double payment has been derired as a transparent attempt to buy votes.

A €400 payment has been sent to those 46,000 families in receipt of ‘Working Family Payment’, as well as €300 paid to 400,000 people who receive the Fuel Allowance, as well as a €400 payment to recipients of certain pensions.

The money is intended top blind the public to huge increases in the cost of living, spiralling house prices and record homelessness.

The average price for a house is now €345,000, a price that is “completely unaffordable for many in the squeezed middle”, warned Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín.

“The rate of inflation in property price is crucifying families. Many Gardaí, nurses and doctors on a double income can’t afford the asking prices in the greater Dublin area. For people even on high wages owning a home is now a luxury item out of reach.”

Sinn Féin spokesman on housing Eoin Ó Broin warned this week that homelessness is likely to hit 15,000 by the end of the year, including almost 5,000 children.

“Ultimately the only way we will start to tackle the ever-deepening homelessness crisis is with a change of government and a change of housing plan,” he said.

As the gaps of inequality widened over the lifetime of the government, politicians have been enriching themselves, with €10m in ‘golden handshakes’ for those leaving local councils, despite many going on to take up well-paid positions in government roles.

Fears of political corruption have also increased following successive scandals over government spending and the revelation this week that the late Taoiseach John Bruton, who passed away in February, amassed an unexplained fortune of €14m.

Sinn Féin should be the biggest benificiary of a protest vote, but the party has struggled in the summer’s local and European elections, achieving only 11% and 12% respectively, and in recent weeks has endured a series of internal disputes and scandals.

Nevertheless, the party is set to field a record number of candidates, announcing another ten this week to bring a total approaching 70.

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said the coming election presents the people of Ireland with “a real choice”. And she hit out at what she described as the ‘sham rows’ between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael as the coalition partners jockeyed for political position.

Announcing that the party will field three candidates in the five-seater Cavan-Monaghan, she said it was “a real marker” for Sinn Féin’s ambition.

“We want to lead the next government. A government of change,” she said.

“The ordinary people of Ireland can’t afford another five years of Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil at the helm.

“They’ve shared power for almost a decade. Now, on the eve of an election, we see their sham rows being reported in the news.

“They both need to grow-up and cop-on. The truth is Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are now the same.

“They’ve wasted the last five years in government to make a lasting difference in people’s lives.

“The sharpest example of this is Micheál Martin’s claim that they’ve turned the corner on housing when they built fewer homes this year than last year.

“We are now asking voters to call time on the cosy club. To finally end the dominance of Irish politics by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.”

Ms McDonald is herself facing a challenge in her four-seater Dublin Central constituency, where prominent left-wing independent Clare Daly and the current Minister for Public Expenditure, Fine Gael’s Paschal Donohoe, are also candidates.

Meanwhile, Colum Eastwood has written to the leaders of the main political parties in the 26 Counties urging each of them to make a manifesto commitment to achieve Irish unity.

The Foyle MP, who stood down as SDLP leader last month after nine years in the role, backed remarks by former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in September in which he said a united Ireland should be an “objective” and not just an “aspiration” for whoever is in charge after the next general election.

Mr Eastwood’s letter to the leaders of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Sinn Féin, the Greens, Labour and the Social Democrats, says “those of us who believe in the power and potential of a new Ireland have an obligation to set out what that would look like for the people who share this island”.

“We have a duty to commit to a vision that improves health services, enhances our shared economy, delivers on the potential of new jobs and a better quality of life for everyone,” he writes.

“It is, I believe, the biggest, boldest and most exciting idea around.”

He asks each of the leaders to “consider including a clear pledge in your party’s manifesto supporting the unification of our island as an objective of government alongside deliverable commitments to advancing this important project”.

“As you know, one such way would be to convene the New Ireland Forum to allow parties across the island to come together to begin the process of planning for change,” the letter says.

“This matter is too important to be left to any political party. The future of Ireland cannot, and should not, be tied to the fortunes of one political movement.”

Urgent Appeal