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VOTERS WILL GO to the polls in just 21 days, on Friday 29 November, to choose who will lead the country for the next five years.
Political candidates will be campaigning hard over the course of the campaign to win your vote, but first things first – are you on the register?
If not, or if you need to change your address for any reason, you’ll need to act fast.
The deadline for registering to vote or update your details is Tuesday 12 November.
The window to register for postal and special voting is even shorter – this Sunday 10 November, in reality though this means you will need to get the forms posted today.
If you have not previously registered, you can do so on the Check the Register website. All you will need is your PPS number and your Eircode.
If you have previously registered, but are now living at a different address, you can update your details here. This must also be done by 12 November.
If you are moving from Dublin to any county outside of Dublin, or moving to Dublin from any county outside of Dublin, you can only update your details or change your address using the ERF1 Form, available here.
Once registered, a polling card will be sent to your home address before the general election.
Okay, so with that out of the way, here’s everything else you should know.
A lot of the parties began launching various policy documents in the weeks before the election was formally called.
We have a good idea of what most are proposing on housing and childcare already, with all of the big parties pledged to cut the monthly cost of childcare to €200.
Sinn Féin has also published a detailed health policy document. We can expect similar from Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil over the next couple of weeks.
Manifestos are set to start dropping early next week.
Fianna Fáil and the Green Party have both confirmed they will be the first to launch theirs, with the rest expected the following week. Fine Gael’s plans remain unknown, with a press officer telling The Journal they are “only operating in 24 hour cycles”.
In terms of slogans for this election, we have to give a notable shout out to Fianna Fáil and Independent Ireland for basically choosing the same one.
Here’s the core messages being put forward by the parties:
Fianna Fáil: ‘Moving Forward Together’
Fine Gael: ‘Putting money back in people’s pockets’
Sinn Féin: ‘It’s Time for Change’
The Green Party: ‘Greens Deliver’
Labour: ‘Building Better Together’
Social Democrats: ‘For the Future’
People Before Profit-Solidarity: ‘End 100 years of FF/FG – Another Ireland is possible’
Aontú: ‘It’s time for common sense’
Independent Ireland: ‘Forward Together’
How many seats are up for grabs?
As per the Constitution, there must be an average of one TD to represent every 20,000 to 30,000 people in the country.
This means that this general election will see 14 more TDs elected to the Dáil than before, following a review by the Electoral Commission last year.
This will make it the largest Dáil in the history of the State, with a total of 174 seats to be filled across 43 constituencies. Each constituency must have three, four or five TDs.
Some changes were made to the constituencies as part of a boundaries review last year. You can see how your area was impacted here.
You can check who is running in your area on The Journal‘s Candidate Database here.
Debates, debates, debates
At The Journal, we’ll be covering all of the main events across the election and diving deeper into the issues that our readers care about with sit down interviews with the various party leaders planned across the course of the next three weeks.
We kicked this off today, sitting down with Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin. You can read that interview here.
Our political podcast The Candidate will also be bringing you behind the scenes and behind the headlines of the election campaign every week. Episodes are available wherever you get your podcasts.
Elsewhere, one of the biggest components of any election campaign is always the live TV leaders’ debates.
This year, Virgin Media has pulled the plug on its live debates, leaving RTÉ to carry the mantle.
Although not officially announced by RTÉ, we understand Upfront with Katie Hannon will host a 10-way leaders debate on Monday 18 November.
Taking part will be: Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Sinn Féin, the Greens, Labour, Social Democrats, Aontú, Independent Ireland, People Before Profit and Independents4Change TD Joan Collins.
Prime Time will then hold a debate between the leaders of the three largest parties (Micheál Martin, Simon Harris and Mary Lou McDonald) on Tuesday 26 November.
Polling stations will open across the country at 7am on the morning of 29 November and you will be able to cast your vote until 10pm that night.
The following day, the counting begins.
Last time around, in 2020, it took three days for all of the ballots to be counted across the country.
If we expect similar again that means we should know who the winners and losers are by Monday 2 December at the earliest. Although, depending on if any recounts are required it could be longer.
The 34th Dáil is then scheduled to sit for the first time on Wednesday 18 December.
Compared to previous years, there is an unusually long gap between this and polling day, but it does give the parties plenty of time to get government formation talks done and dusted before Christmas.
In 2020, the arrival of the Covid pandemic in March meant it took five months for government formation talks to conclude.
Everyone will be hoping for speedier work this time around.
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First time I’ve seen it occupied in a while in fairness
I saw it – huge admiration to the pair for caring enough to do this…
Fair enough in my book. Well done to protesters. They’ve at the very least raised awareness about this. I for one didn’t know about the failure to compensate. Best of luck.
Me neither.
They’ll never see the “united colours” of my money!
What a dump of a store…. I’ve never seen a single thing in it I’d ever want to buy…
Apart from one Garda who was on the scene the protest seemed to be a peaceful one..
Are you suggesting the gardai would cause the protest not to be peaceful?
Occupy Wool Street?
Jeez and Dunnes workers think their working conditions are bad.
So you want to live in Bangladesh?
Chill Kevin, tragedies like this one are horrific and all I am saying is in comparative terms Dunnes workers have little to be complaining about.
Well if you compare it to footballers who have no need for qualifications and get to play football all day for 150k a week they do have something to complain about. What’s your point??
Dunnes workers don’t have to work in mortal danger to earn the right to complain about their conditions
Comparitive to denis obrien they deserve a wage increase of 100000%
My point for the third time, when you hear of awful tragedies like this where thousands perish at work it puts things into perspective how good our working conditions are here.
My minimum wage flexi hour contract severely disagrees with you
Throw away the shovel, Top Cat. You’re on a loser on this one.
He is right though Said the unpopular opinion puffin
In the first photo Benetton appears to be spelled Bennetton and in the third photo survivors is spelled Survivers… I’ll bet any takers not a single one of them can find Bangladesh on a map.
In fact I’m slightly disappointed not to see an attempt to write Bangladesh… I’m sure that would have been good for a laugh.
Have these people no jobs to go to, what about the inconvenience to shoppers, wasting police resources and so on and so forth.
How about not being a heartless tool, and so on and so forth
some waffle outta you kid !
wipe the shiite off yer lip
How about looking up sarcasm in a dictionary? In case you haven’t noticed these are the usual lines thrown out about water charge protesters.
The only thing I noticed was the shiite on yer lip
It could be worse it could be between my ears.
sorry Niall – didnt get the sarcasm at all man -
Oh Niall! I hate to say this but…!
Surprised protesters are allowed in the store.
Down with that sort of thing.
Cianan his name is Gerry Lydon not Donal.
The company’s failure to own up to the disaster and pay their contribution has nothing to do with store itself though! These protesters are jeopardising the employers and employees safety and privacy, by carelessly protesting in the middle of the store, and that is by no means peaceful. They are absolutely right to raise awareness but if they want effective results, why not contact the head office of the company itself? Why not go there and protest? What about the other stores around the country? This poorly organised protest is just an attention-seeking bid from individuals who are just protesting for the sake of it.
Hi guys. Gerry here. I helped organize and was involved with today’s protest. Just a few points : Neuromacer its easy to walk into a store that isn’t expecting. Drew go out and play with the traffic! Those talking about dunnes : Yes our lives are infinitely better but as we saw with some of the thongs they were fightong for, if employers get a taste for exploitation, in a globalized world we can feel the effect here as well as regard zero hours, union involvement etc. Anca I gonna presume your not the sort who ever actually does anything judging by the tone of your “whats the point of action comment”. While Id like to dismiss you as a waste of space, unfortunately your apathy and cynicism is quote common so to summarize getting publicity for a neglected cause is better than sitting round moaning. But as for the jeopatdizing safety and privacy, go back to sleep and stop throwing around terms! Ill see you in the morning glen. So finally nothing comes of nothing. If you care about something, put some effort in and get out there! The smallest acorns can become a big tree or at least a feature on a popular website! X.
Good on ye Gerry, hope you managed to stop them making sales today.
Because it would have damn all impact . Go up to the head office here and say, please play nicely and pay the money you owe? We all know most big corporations have to be dragged kicking and screaming to do the right thing. These people have had two years to pay the money they pledged. Time for them to be shamed into stumping up.
Hi Gerry, I dont think the Dunnes strike had anything to do with underwear.
A bottle of Lynx would get rid of them protestors! I’d say there’s an awful stink of piss in that shop at the moment.
They do make some nice clothes though
have your say