LAST UPDATE | 20 Nov 2024

IT’S DAY THIRTEEN – will it be a lucky or unlucky one? Here’s the latest:

• Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have criticised Sinn Féin’s manifesto spending, calling it a “damaging cocktail” of tax and spend policies. Fine Gael also launched a party campaign video depicting Sinn Fein smashing a piggy bank (FG also criticised FF manifesto numbers last week).
• Seven parties took part in a debate on climate and the environment hosted by Dublin City University, Friends of the Earth and Stop Climate Chaos. It’s available to watch back here.
• Taoiseach Simon Harris insisted Fine Gael has not been forced on to the back foot by controversies that have emerged during the election campaign.
• Voter sentiment in Dundalk expressed to The Journal shows support for John McGahon, but many locals feel he shouldn’t be running in the general election.
• Micheál Martin has distanced himself from comments made by two of his party’s general election candidates in relation to asylum seekers and immigration.
• Taoiseach Simon Harris has said Sinn Féin’s manifesto pledge to independently review RTÉ’s coverage of the war in Gaza is a “dog whistle to conspiracy theorists”.
• Fine Gael’s Peter Burke has insisted the controversy over comments made by Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary about teachers and the reaction to the remarks was a “media bubble” story. 
• Several Sinn Féin candidates, including party spokesperson on disability and carers Louise O’Reilly, set out the party’s proposals around disability supports today.
• Labour TD for Tipperary Alan Kelly and other Labour candidates launched the party’s crime and garda recruitment policy in Dublin this morning. 
• People Before Profit leader Richard Boyd Barrett and other PBP candidates spoke to media about their manifesto commitments on solidarity with Palestine.
• Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman was in Blanchardstown alongside candidate Karla Doran to discuss childcare.
• Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin along with Minister of State for Disability Anne Rabbitte launched its plan for disability supports in Dublin today. Martin hit out at the HSE and the Green Party for a lack of progress in delivering school-based therapies for children with disabilities.