Taoiseach Simon Harris has put an end to months of speculation and confirmed that an early general election will be held on Friday, November 29th.
Mr Harris said he intended to ask President Michael D Higgins to dissolve the Dáil this Friday upon his return from an informal meeting of the European Council in Budapest.
He is expected to return to Dublin on Friday afternoon to kick off a three-week election campaign that will likely focus on housing, Government spending, the cost of living and healthcare.
Once President Higgins has granted a dissolution of the Dáil, Minister for Housing and Local Government Darragh O’Brien will set the polling date for November 29th.
Speaking on RTÉ's Six One News, the Taoiseach said he wanted to wait until the Finance Bill was passed before calling the election.
He said he “didn’t want to be knocking on people’s doors until we had tax cuts actually passed into law. There’s important work to carried out in the Dáil and the Seanad today and tomorrow.
“It’s my intention then to seek dissolution of the Dáil by President Higgins on Friday, and as I would have discussed with the other Coalition leaders, it’s my hope that we’ll have polling day in this country on November 29th,” he said.
“I’m looking forward to the weeks ahead, and asking the people of Ireland for a mandate.”
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Government formation talks could begin in December, but a new government may not be formed until the new year.
Tánaiste Micheál Martin earlier confirmed that the election will be called on Friday. Speaking to Virgin Media News, Mr Martin said: “We’re looking forward to it. You can see people out and about already in terms of campaigning, but it will be on Friday.”
Speculation about an early general election became heightened after this summer’s local and European elections where Sinn Féin took less than 12 per cent of the national vote, while Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil performed better than expected and emerged as the two biggest parties of local government.
Mr Harris came under pressure from within his own party to consider calling an election sooner than next March. That pressure intensified when polling showed his own personal approval rating shooting up by 17 points to 55 per cent in September.
Sinn Féin, meanwhile, promised it would act on a review of the local elections in order to better prepare for this general election and run an appropriate number of candidates. The party now intends to field around 70 candidates. The number needed for a Dáil majority is 88.
The Taoiseach’s decision comes after Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman and the Tánaiste opened the door to an early election in recent weeks.
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