LAST UPDATE | 1 hr ago
AFTER A FRANTIC three week campaign, politicians are scattered across the country today making one final pitch to voters ahead of polls opening in the general election tomorrow.
With the last of the polls out and the debates finished, The Journal has been on the ground with party leaders Mary Lou McDonald, Simon Harris and Micheál Martin today to gauge how they are approaching the final hurdle.
Fine Gael leader Simon Harris was out in Lucan this afternoon for a visit to St Joseph’s School where he met with students and teachers.
Speaking to media as he arrived alongside Fine Gael councillor Vicki Casserly and outgoing minister Paschal Donohoe and minister of state Emer Higgins, the Taoiseach had one core message. Well, two actually.
Firstly – get out and vote tomorrow.
Secondly – be very afraid of Sinn Féin.
“A vote for Sinn Féin you could end up skint,” the Taoiseach said, adding: “Don’t end up with buyers’ remorse.”
Fine Gael’s big pitch to voters on the final day of campaign was clear: We are the steady pair of hands and Sinn Féin are untested.
Mary Lou McDonald took a different tack though and batted away what she described as “desperation” from the Fine Gael ranks.
The Sinn Féin leader today ended her 2024 general election campaign where she started it, outside the gates of Government Buildings.
Flanked by fellow party spokespeople Eoin Ó Broin and Matt Carthy, McDonald pledged “a world beyond Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael” and attacked Taoiseach Simon Harris’s “desperation” in the final hours before polling begins.
“We’re also asking those who are considering maybe voting for someone else – if you want change, if you want a change of government, vote for Sinn Féin,” McDonald said.
“Lend us your vote for this election because Sinn Féin has the momentum.”
Fine Gael’s Paschal Donohoe had a direct response to this appeal when he spoke to media in Lucan.
He was equally as direct with his words as the outgoing-Taoiseach was: “I’d ask the country to think seriously about this. If you lend Sinn Féin your vote, you also lend Sinn Féin your future.
“If you lend them your future, you might not get it back.”
Yesterday’s Red C poll results released by the Business Post has Sinn Féin tied with Fine Gael on 20 per cent, just behind Fianna Fáil who holds a narrow lead on 21 per cent.
It marks a rise of two percentage points for Sinn Féin but a fall of two points for Fine Gael compared to previous polling.
This week’s Irish Times/Ipsos B&A poll reflected a similar landscape going into tomorrow’s decisive day, with Fianna Fáil on 20 – up two points – ahead of Sinn Féin up one on 20 and Fine Gael slumping six points to 19.
It is all to play for and none of the party leaders are taking anything for granted.
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin is spending much of the final day today in the South East of the country, where he has been canvassing with his candidates Malcolm Byrne, Stephen Donnelly and Pat Kennedy.
The Fianna Fáil leader spending this vital final day in Simon Harris’s constituency of Wicklow is telling and shows just how under pressure outgoing Health Minister Stephen Donnelly might be to hold onto his seat.
Martin was cool, calm and collected though speaking to reporters this afternoon in Greystones.
He praised the electorate for their engagement in this election and said housing and disability services have been the “standout” issues of this campaign.
Asked whether he would reveal which parties he would transfer to when he votes on Friday, Martin said: “Well, that’s a matter for me, and then I cherish the privacy of the ballot box, and that’s the way it should be for every voter.”
Was this a dig a Simon Harris who yesterday told the Irish Examiner that he will be voting for parties like Fianna Fáil and Labour?
Mary Lou McDonald on the other hand was more happy to give voters a steer, asking them to offer their preference votes to “candidates that are of the left” and who are part of the “progressive movement”.
Specifically, she urged voters to transfer to People Before Profit and the Social Democrats.
Responding to a question about the prospect of one of the two largest incumbent parties forming a coalition with her party, the Sinn Féin leader and Dublin Central candidate said: “The objective for us is for a new government led by Sinn Féin, without Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.
“I know that the older establishment parties desperately cling to the narrative that it’s them or nothing,” McDonald said.
Outside the Ambassador Theatre in Dublin city centre the Social Democrats were similarly urging people to vote left down the ballot.
Outgoing Dublin Central TD Gary Gannon, echoed McDonald’s sentiment.
“Yes, what we’ve been very clear about is vote left, transfer left,” he said.
“But what’s very clear to me is that 14 years of Fine Gael has left us in the situation that we are today. I mean…standing at the top of O’Connell Street right now, look at the vacancy, look at the dereliction.”
He also confirmed he would include McDonald on his Dublin Central ballot paper and added that he will give his preference votes to Labour’s Marie Sherlock, People Before Profit’s Eoghan O Ceannabhain and Sinn Féin’s Janice Boylan.
Meanwhile, Labour leader Ivana Bacik wasn’t too happy with the Taoiseach’s appeal to voters to transfer voters to Labour.
The outgoing Dublin Bay South TD criticised the comments made by Harris and appealed to the public to vote for “radical” change and “centre-left” parties.
Elsewhere in Dublin, Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman was also making his final pitch to voters: “Stick with us”.
“We’re asking for another mandate to continue that work in the Dáil,” O’Gorman said, adding that the Greens have broken the tradition in Ireland that the smaller party is “always overwhelmed by the agendas of the larger coalition partners.”
All of the party leaders will be going to bed tonight hoping they have done enough to get their teams over the line.
Whether they have or not, will be up to you.
With reporting from Gráinne Ní Aodha
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