Good morning,
After a brief lull in the election campaign yesterday, we can expect to spend much of today and tomorrow hearing about an issue that has so far taken a bit of a back seat: Brexit.
More than 1,000 days after the 2016 referendum, the United Kingdom will finally leave the European Union tomorrow.
There will be parties in Parliament Square in London and a special address from Downing Street.
Irish politicians will carefully watch, as they have done for the last three to four years, the events across the water. Furthermore, it will all unfold at a pivotal time in the campaign as many voters finally make up their mind over the coming days.
At home, Fine Gael spent much of yesterday issuing dire warnings about what may happen if an adequate trade deal is not agreed between the UK and EU by the end of the year.
While Tánaiste Simon Coveney insisted his party is not trying to scare people, he again posed the ominous question: “who do you trust to manage all of that because it’s coming at us like a freight train, whether you like it or not.”
He acknowledged, too, that “Brexit has not been central to the campaign. That may change from Friday on, but we’ll see.”
To this end, expect to see Ministers arrive at ungodly hours to Dublin Port for tours of the purpose-built Brexit facilities in the coming days.
In the meantime Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin will today make a speech entitled “After Brexit: Ireland and the future of the EU” at the Institute of International and European Affairs.
Beyond the realm of Brexit, the big event of Day 16 will be the Virgin Media One debate between seven of the party leaders.
A similar discussion earlier in the week failed to produce any obvious winners, with each leader finding something to be happy about in his or her performance.
The debate comes as new figures showed a drop of 736 in the December homeless figures. While it is true that homeless figures have fallen every December compared with the previous month since 2014, the news was still widely welcomed – and could potentially give a much-needed boost to Fine Gael.
But that news had barely landed when Fiach Kelly dropped this story.
After Catherine Noone’s (now withdrawn) remarks in which she said the Taoiseach is “autistic”, Fine Gael paused the constituency voting pact between the Senator and Richard Bruton.
After the story went out, internal controversy prompted the party to reverse its decision.
The piece also has the following nugget: “Ms Noone is understood to have asked that she be given the opportunity to explain herself in a broadcast media interview.”
After a mock interview it was decided not to go ahead with the radio excursion, with memories of Maria Bailey’s appearance on RTÉ’s Sean O’Rourke still clearly fresh in the minds of party chiefs.
Election Daily
If you're short on time but want to catch up on all the main developments on the election trail, have a listen to our latest Election Daily podcast, which is hosted by Hugh Linehan. Most episodes are only around ten or 15 minutes long and will bring you up to speed. The latest episode can be found here.
Best Reads
A brilliant report from Miriam Lord here as Leo Varadkar avoids the "Veronavirus" in Wexford.
Pat Leahy looks into whether we are really seeing a Sinn Féin 'surge'.
Boris Johnson has promised to mark Britain's exit from the European Union on Friday in a "respectful" and "dignified" way, Denis Staunton reports.
Shane Ross may be the "worst" Minister for Transport ever: Marie O'Halloran reports as Green leader Eamon Ryan goes on the attack.
Brian Hutton's election outtakes are here.
Harry McGee was at Fianna Fáil's gambling policy launch while still finding a way to bring you the campaign live from our rolling blog.
Jack Horgan-Jones has another very informative election fact-check looking at whether the Taoiseach was right to say the average person working full-time in Ireland earns €47,000 per year.
Fiach Kelly is on the canvass with Leo Varadkar's running mate, Emer Currie.
And I have a piece on the M20 Cork-to-Limerick road, the Government's largest infrastructure project outside Dublin: how much will it cost? We don't actually know.
Election Diary
The Labour Party will this morning unveil its health policy near the University Hospital Limerick with Alan Kelly, Jan O’Sullivan and Galway East candidate Marian Spelman.
As mentioned, Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin will address the Institute of International & European Affairs this morning.
Tánaiste Simon Coveney and Minister for Climate Action Richard Bruton will set out Fine Gael plans for balanced regional development and will canvass in Waterford and Dungarvan.
Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe will also speak about Fine Gael’s tax plans at midday.
The Soc Dems will be launching their disability policy with Cllr Cian O’Callaghan in Fairview Park at 10.30am.
