LAST UPDATE | 19 Nov 2024

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

• Party leaders clashed in a 10-way debate aired on RTÉ last night.
• We factchecked some of the standout claims from the debate.
• The WhichCandidate quiz that helps voters find a politician running in their constituency that identifies best with their beliefs has been released.
• Taoiseach Simon Harris said he has “no idea” if he will be canvassing with Fine Gael’s Louth candidate John McGahon, who was ordered this summer by the High Court to pay €39,000 to a farmer who sued the senator for assault and battery. 
• Sinn Féin published its election manifesto this morning, titled ‘The Choice For Change’. Its main focuses are affordable housing, lower rents, access to healthcare and providing childcare for €10 a day.
• The Social Democrats have also launched their manifesto. It details their “deal breakers”, saying they would “only enter a government” which delivers⁠ 50,000 affordable purchase homes, the full implementation of Sláintecare, quality public childcare, credible climate action, and a senior Minister for Disability.
• Fianna Fáil released its plans for the education sector, which include increasing teacher numbers, expanding the School Transport Service, reducing class sizes, prioritising special education and introducing therapies in school, and also said it would invest €250 million in a ‘modern methods of construction innovation fund’.
• People Before Profit leader Richard Boyd Barrett and Dublin North West candidate Councillor Conor Reddy visited teachers who are protesting against Leaving Certificate reforms at a school in Dublin. Reddy said this morning that there is support for Leaving Cert changes but that the “accelerated pace planned for the reform process will be a disaster for students, teachers and parents”.
• Labour launched its Climate and Just Transition Policy. It involves an additional €16 billion in climate action over the next five years and would aim to decrease emissions by 8% annually.
• Fine Gael released details of a plan for reducing the cost of healthcare and increasing capacity and enhancing access to disability services. It includes “providing free GP care to under 18s, cutting the monthly cost of drugs to €50, making contraception free to women over 35 years and abolishing the prescription charge”.
• The Green Party announced the details of its ‘warmer homes’ policies at a briefing in a retrofitted home in Dublin. It’s proposing an ‘equity-based’ scheme for retrofitting and providing a 100% grant for solar panel installation to 200,000 low-income households.