LAST UPDATE | 14 Nov 2024

Labour TD Duncan Smith in a screengrab from a video to promote the party's plan to invest in football. The Labour Party / X The Labour Party / X / X

IT’S DAY SEVEN of the election campaign – here’s the latest:

• Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch officially registered to run for a Dáil seat in the general election. He is running as an Independent in the Dublin Central constiuency.
• In a whistle-stop Dublin canvass, Taoiseach Simon Harris was quizzed by students and confronted on homelessness.
• Housing may have dominated the campaign up till now – but most of today’s formal election-related events covered a range of other issues.
• Sinn Féin were out launching their immigration plans earlier, and told reporters they’d consider asking EU citizens to register their presence upon arrival in Ireland.
• Elsewhere, Fianna Fáil said they’d implement major investment in the health service, the Social Democrats’ Dublin Mid-West candidate Eoin Ó Bróin (not that one) helped launch the party’s climate policy and Aontú were out to speak about their agriculture plan. 
• In Drogheda, Labour’s Ged Nash launched their “vision for football in Ireland”. The party wants to “implement an ambitious strategy to develop community grassroots football”.
• People Before Profit pledged free childcare, public transport and healthcare as part of its pitch to voters ahead of the general election. 
• Harris also spoke to Virgin Media last night, in the first of the Ballymount broadcaster’s big interviews with the three main party leaders. 
• Elsewhere, our FactCheck team looked at where Fine Gael have stood on drug decriminalisation in the past. Drug policy has become a campaign talking point since Harris took aim at Fianna Fáil’s manifesto pledge to decriminalise the possession of drugs for personal use.
• The FactCheck team also looked at how a racist conspiracy theory has ended up in some election materials.
• It appears as though Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael aren’t getting on with each other, or at least that’s how it can seem on TV. But don’t be fooled, writes our political editor Christina Finn - it makes sense for both parties to be having argy-bargys in public and on TV programmes right now. 

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