LAST UPDATE | 27 Nov 2024

IT’S DAY 20. The leaders of the three biggest parties battled it out last night in their final debate of the election. As the dust settles, here’s what today looks like:

• Fine Gael’s Simon Harris, Fianna Fáil’s Micheál Martin and Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald clashed over key issues at the final leaders’ debate last night, which was watched by over one million people. Some 1,060,000 tuned in for a minute or more of the RTÉ broadcast last night, while the full programme had an average audience of 565,000 on RTÉ One and RTÉ One+1.
• Meanwhile, our FactCheck team was busy during the final leaders’ debate last night and here’s what stood out for them.
• Elsewhere, The Journal read the manifestos so you don’t have to, and here’s what the three big parties promise on three key areas.
• Fine Gael candidate Noel Rock did not say if he would recuse himself from topics that he previously lobbied politicians on when he held a senior position in a consulting company, when asked by The Journal today.
• Many Irish voters feel passionately about the Palestinian cause and want their public representatives to do more on the issue. Here’s where the political parties stand on Gaza. 
• The College of Psychiatrists of Ireland has called for a ‘super-junior’ ministerial post for mental health, as well as minimum mental health funding of €2 billion plus capital expenditure. It also warned that inadequate focus on mental health by previous governments has had a “disastrous impact” on patients and their families.
• Independents do not provide stability to coalitions, Roderic O’Gorman said as part of a drive for support for his Green Party.
• Political parties have been making all types of pledges and promises in the run up to the general election, and we looked at what they have been saying on inheritance tax.
• People Before Profit leader Richard Boyd Barrett and other candidates called for voters to “Vote People Before Profit No. 1 and transfer left” at a demonstration in Dublin this afternoon.