Parties make final pleas to voters on eve of election

Fine Gael and Labour have used "fear and smear" as their main campaign tactic, Fianna Fáil's director of elections said.

Parties have made their final pleas to voters on the last day of campaigning in the general election. The broadcasting moratorium came into place at 2pm. The polls open on Friday morning at 7am.

Voting has already begun on islands off the west coast.Billy Kelleher claimed the outgoing coalition parties have shown how desperate they are by promoting a cup of tea between the two party leaders.

ExpandAutoplay

Image 1 of 3

Tanaiste and Taoiseach Joan Burton and Enda Kenny sit for the last time in front of media before the election moratorium at Herb Street Cafe, Grand Canal, Dublin. Photograph: Brenda Fitzsimons/The Irish Times

On Thursday morning, Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Tánaiste Joan Burton made an eve of election appeal for Fine Gael and Labour supporters to implement the vote transfer pact agreed between the two parties.

Mr Kenny and Ms Burton gave a brief press conference after they had tea and scones together at Grand Canal Dock in Dublin city centre.

Taoiseach said it had been a “great privilege” to lead the Coalition for five years and asked Fine Gael supporters to continue their preference for Labour candidates.

Ms Burton returned the favour, asking Labour votes to continue their preferences for Fine Gael.

“A very small shift in voting intentions in terms of both parties would actually return a stable government for the next five years,” she said, adding that such a small shift will maximise the number of Government TDs returned.

Mr Kenny said the return of the Government can be achieved, and repeated it his not intention to do a deal with Fianna Fáil and Micheál Martin after the election.

“What I would like to happen is that a clear signal is given by the people and a clear decision made by the people when they do cast their votes,” the Taoiseach said.

“One of the ways they can avoid confusion and instability and the consequent dangers in that is to support the government that has been in office for the last five years.

“That government is on offer for the people to provide stability and continued progress in implementing a strategic plan that will bring further prosperity to our country and essentially make the recovery felt in every home and every person.”

Fianna Fáil

Mr Kelleher ridiculed the photocall by the Taoiseach and Tánaiste. “This is how desperate they are, sharing a cup of tea down by the docks.

“Things are really coming to an end for them.

“They have used fear and smear as their basic campaign tactic. They have changed their message, they have changed their policies they have retreated from some of their major policies,” he said.

He said Fianna Fail has not changed its message once claiming that was why they were resonating in the polls. Mr Kelleher refused to be drawn on how many seats Fianna Fail would win in the election.

However he insisted it would not be credible for the party to enter coalition with Fine Gael.

Mr Kelleher said: “At the risk of being repetitive, we are not going into government with Fine Gael.

“They thought they really only had to turn up to Croke Park, didn’t have to play on the pitch and that they could walk up the Hogan Stand and pick up the cup. But they forgot they actually had to play the match.”

Sinn Féin

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams has called on young people “not to listen to the bullshit” but to come out to vote and to “vote wisely to elect a progressive government”.

Speaking to a large Irish and international media gathering outside the GPO yesterday Mr Adams said “tomorrow is the people’s day” and “it can also be the people’s Rising. We’re calling upon young people particularly to lead that rising.”

The Louth TD, said the election was a “battle of ideas going on between the golden circles and the people”, between austerity and equality.

He wanted everyone to consider “seizing the moment and voting Sinn Féin”.

Speaking before a walkabout on Henry Street and Moore Street in the capital’s city centre, Mr Adams insisted he was not disappointed with falling poll ratings for the party.

“In our initial strategising we figured out where we should be at and we are at precisely where we thought we would be,” he said.

Asked about coalition government, he reiterated that the party’s ardfheis would decide. “Our ardfheis has decided very, very clearly we will not be a junior partner with any of those establishment parties.”

Fine Gael

Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney said Mr Kenny has made "some mistakes" during the election campaign but he was a great party leader.

“He’s made some mistakes and we all have. He’s human. The Taoiseach lives under the microscope,” the Fine Gael TD said on Thursday.

He told RTÉ radio although he had doubted Mr Kenny in the past, he had worked with him closely over the last five years and Mr Kenny was an "extraordinary person around the Cabinet table. "

Mr Coveney said the last five years had not been easy for Ireland but "extraordinary" progress had been made.

He said he did not believe a Fine Gael-Fianna Fail would be a stable Government. “I don’t trust Fianna Fail,” he said.

Mr Coveney defended the party’s promise to abolish the “unjust and unfair tax” USC, saying the State could afford it and it was the best way to give families back some financial resources.

Labour

Minister for Communications Alex White accepted that Labour in government did not keep certain commitments that had been made by the party in its pre-election manifesto.

He said Labour had managed to deliver on two thirds of the commitments they had made and that was certainly much more than other parties in coalition governments in the past, such as Fianna Fail and the Green Party, had achieved.

The Minister said that while there were a number of things the party did not do, it had kept its promises to create jobs, to protect the most vulnerable, to bring about marriage equality and rebuild the economy to return the dignity and potential of the country.

Minister White said Labour is the only left wing party that has any prospect of being in the next government. “No party will be able to keep all of its pledges. They will have to compromise in government, it is about negotiating your position with others. No party will achieve all of its aims in government”, Minister White said

Other

The Anti-Austerity Alliance-People Before Profit, which has a target of seven seats, predicted the demise of Labour, while the Independent Alliance's Shane Ross said he would not make any red-line demands on local issues before entering coalition.

Renua leader Lucinda Creighton said her party was here to stay.