LAST UPDATE | 22 Oct

TAOISEACH SIMON HARRIS has confirmed that the General Election will be held on a Friday before Christmas.

The three coalition leaders agreed last night that a general election will be held this year. 

But no date was agreed upon after the two-hour long meeting.

A government spokesperson said that the three leaders have agreed to a general election in 2024 but that the passage of the Finance Bill is the priority for the Government.

Yesterday, Harris told the media that “I’m not going into the speculation of the day of the election… I have to keep some small element of surprise for you”.

However, this morning Harris said that the election will take place on a Friday and described the possible dates as a “pretty narrow window”.

While the 2020 General Election was held on a Saturday, Harris this morning told reporters: “I like elections on a Friday.”

He added: “Friday is a good day to have an election and so therefore there’s not that many Fridays left to choose from.”

It is understood a three-week campaign could mean an election on 29 November or a four-week campaign with a polling day on 6 December.

Polling day on 22 November is understood to be too tight a timeframe for legislation to pass and an election campaign to get underway. 

Harris also said: “I don’t want to keep talking about this [upcoming general election] in many ways, because I think the public don’t want us to keep talking about it.”

He added: “There’s absolute clarity here, there’s going to be a general election, it’s going to take place this year and the general election is going to take place on a Friday, and the general election is not going to take place until the Finance Bill is passed.

“That’s a pretty narrow window.

“I do have to have some respect for my own constitutional prerogative in terms of not providing an absolute running commentary on every element.”

Harris said it was now time for “people to put their shoulders at the wheel in this place to get the Finance Bill passed”.

“As I’ve said consistently over the last few days, I wouldn’t fancy knocking on someone’s doors saying, ‘sorry, we had an election, but we forgot to pass the Finance Bill, and therefore the USC cuts aren’t going to kick in in January, or the income tax changes, or the inheritance tax changes, or some of the supports for businesses’.”

Harris said that “when that work is done, I will decide the appropriate date to have the election”.

The Taoiseach also remarked that he has a “very good idea when the general election is going to be, but obviously the Finance Bill does need to be passed”.

“The Finance Bill deserves proper scrutiny and work, and that needs to happen as well,” said Harris.

“So let’s get the Finance Bill sorted, let’s get on with a really busy Cabinet agenda today, and then very shortly, we’ll have a general election, highly likely to be on Friday.”

Meanwhile, Harris said he was not concerned about the number of Fine Gael TDs who will not contest the general election.

Fine Gael deputy leader and social protection minister Heather Humphreys last week announced that she will not be standing for re-election.

It means 18 of the 35 Fine Gael TDs elected in 2020 will not be contesting the next general election.

“People are entitled to retire after the intensity of politics and politics is much more intense than it was,” said Harris.

He also remarked that “while many of our candidates will be new to the Dáil should they be elected, they’re not new to their communities”.

“In every election, lots of new people are elected and I don’t buy into that argument that incumbency is a bigger factor in the general election as it absolutely is in a local election,” said Harris.

Earlier today, People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy took issue with the Taoiseach’s continued commentary on the election date. 

“I believe that the three party leaders know when the election is going to be now, and I don’t understand why they can’t tell the public. I think it’s clearly, to try to, in some way, limit the amount of time for campaigning, but that’s not appropriate,” Murphy said.

Murphy said that in reality, the election campaigning has already started.

“They’re running more than a six week campaign in reality. And for all of Micheál Martin’s talk about governing rather than campaigning, he’s been running an eight, nine week campaign. So just tell the public the date. I presume it’s going to be, November 29 and let everybody plan accordingly,” the Dublin South West TD said. 

With reporting from Jane Matthews.