Irish Prime Minister confirms general election to be held on November 29

Taoiseach Simon Harris has refused to be drawn on the election date for weeks

Taoiseach Simon Harris in Dublin at the end of October 2024. Ireland will go to the polls on November 29 after a campaign of about three weeks. PA

The Republic of Ireland will hold a general election on November 29, Prime Minister Simon Harris said on Wednesday.

He will seek the dissolution of the Dail, Ireland’s parliament, when he visits Aras an Uachtarain, the official residence of President Michael D Higgins, on Friday.

Mr Harris who, like his predecessors is referred to as the Taoiseach, has overseen the passing of important pieces of legislation and said he was looking forward to starting the campaign.

“It’s my intention then to seek dissolution of the Dail by President Higgins on Friday,” he 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 told RTE News on Wednesday.

After refusing to be drawn on the election date for weeks, Mr Harris made the announcement less than an hour after his coalition partner-turned-campaign rival Micheal Martin revealed that the election would be called on Friday.

The highly-anticipated announcement will formally kick-off a campaign which will last a matter of weeks.

It ends the parliamentary sitting months short of its full five-year maximum term and comes after the Irish government progressed legislation it had identified as priority to conclude following October’s budget.

The election will end the historic coalition which was formed in mid-2020, bringing together Fine Gael and Fianna Fail in an agreement which ended a rivalry dating to the Civil War a century ago.

The talks to form a government were held over five months, influenced by the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

Joining with the Greens to hold a majority in the Dail, ministries were divided across the parties and an agreement for a “rotating taoiseach” was formed.

It involved Mr Martin, the Fianna Fail leader, taking the Taoiseach role for the first half of the lifetime of the government, later replaced by then-Fine Gael leader Leo Varadkar.

Mr Harris became Taoiseach earlier this year after Mr Varadkar decided to step away from his stewardship of the party.

The lifetime of the government has been characterised by its response to several challenges, from the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, the cost-of-living crisis, the inability to accommodate rising numbers of asylum seekers and compounding pressures in housing – including record levels of homelessness.

More recently, the government has faced criticism for its public spending after it emerged €336,000 had been spent on a bike shed at the parliament, on top of other issues such as the spiralling cost of a multibillion-euro children’s hospital in Dublin.

It also suffered a knock when referendums it put forward were overwhelmingly rejected by the public in early 2024.

However, government figures applauded a range of measures for families, including reducing the cost of childcare, the introduction of hot school meals and free schoolbooks as policies.

They also point to efforts to accommodate of more than 100,000 people fleeing the war in Ukraine and the overall management of the public purse as among its successes.

Elsewhere, senior ministers are proud of the coalition’s record on increasing housing delivery and the recognition of Palestinian statehood amid Israel’s war in Gaza. However, detractors feel that the scale of government action in these areas was insufficient.

The election comes shortly after what was characterised as a “giveaway budget”, which included additional child benefit, pension, and other social welfare payments occurring before polling day.

The results of the last election left Fianna Fail with a narrow seat lead ahead of Sinn Fein and Fine Gael. Sinn Fein had the highest percentage of first-preference votes, but came in second ahead of Fine Gael.

It was seen as both a monumentally successful result for Sinn Fein, the largest opposition party, and among the worst performances for the other two major parties.

At the time, Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald faced criticism for not running more candidates which would have capitalised on its large share of first-preference votes.

Since then, Sinn Fein has admitted that it achieved worse-than-expected results in local and European elections in the Republic of Ireland – which took place earlier this year.

The challenge for the government parties, particularly Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, will be putting forward a convincing message on policies that distinguishes them from their erstwhile colleagues.

However, members of the coalition will be buoyed by a string of controversies that have beset Sinn Fein in recent weeks.

Ms McDonald addressed the Dail on a series of scandals, including former party members writing job references for a colleague who was later convicted of child sex crimes.

In the election, Ireland will choose more members of parliament, known as TDs, than before.

It comes after a recommendation to increase the number of TDs from 160 to 174 to account for a boom in the population. The number of constituencies has increased from 39 to 43.

After polling day, the protracted process of counting ballots by hand will begin. As Ireland uses a system of proportional representation, the voting slips need to be counted several times – an undertaking which can last for days.