Good morning.
We’re now a full week in to the election campaign, with just another 15 days to go until voting day on Friday, 29th November.
This morning our front page reports that the divide between Opposition parties and Fine Gael/Fianna Fáil on the issue of a rent freeze sharpened yesterday.
There are clear divides now in housing policy with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael on the one side and most of the Opposition on the other. A rent freeze and the Help-to-Buy scheme appear to be the two biggest issues so far.
Sinn Féin will unveil its proposals for an immigration management agency today, while members of the Green Party will discuss their climate proposals at an event in Dublin. Fianna Fáil is due to outline its policy for affordability and accessibility in healthcare.
Meanwhile, Fórsa, Ireland’s largest public service trade union, will launch the union’s general election manifesto today.
Our reporters will bring us live updates on this and other moments from the campaign trail throughout the day.
Key Reads:
- Gerry Hutch in the Dáil? Gangland figure may take some comfort from Donald Trump
- General election: Housing battle sharpens as parties clash on rent freezes
- Meet the voters: ‘We have enough room and money in this country to look after everybody’
- Inside Politics: Fine Gael’s promises begin to add up a week into election campaign
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said that if Sinn Féin enters government, in the first 100 days a minister for reunification would be appointed, a green paper on reunification would be drafted, and a citizens assembly would be put together.
Ms McDonald said conversations would then happen with the British Government to discuss what the “tipping point” is for the holding of a border poll.
Jennifer Bray is attending Sinn Féin’s launch of the party’s immigration management agency plan.
Currently, the party feels the different bodies and Government departments involved in our migration system, which have been acting independently of one another, is a cause of “fragmented decision making, which along with a significantly under resourced and under pressure system leads to significant delays and bad planning and outcomes”.
Sinn Féin said it would set up a new Immigration Management Agency, under the Department of Justice and Home Affairs, that would have responsibility for processing of applicants, enforcement of rules, registration of individuals and accommodation.
This would bring together personnel from the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB), Border Management Unit (BMU), Immigration Service Delivery (ISD), International Protection Office (IPO), International Protection Accommodation Services (PAS) and those involved in relevant functions at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) under one department rather than multiple departments.
The party said it would “ensure cohesion in planning sharing of information and speedy decision making”.
In today’s Inside Politics newsletter Pat Leahy writes on what may well become a talking point today:
Last night, in an interview with Colette Fitzpatrick on Virgin Media, Taoiseach Simon Harris announced another policy departure – if re-elected to government, he said, he would abolish the means test for the carers’ allowance.
We can expect that the details will be fleshed out by Fine Gael today, but the costs for this move will be significant. Earlier this year, officials in the Department of Social Protection estimated the cost would be an additional €600 million per annum, based on current claim numbers. That is, in other words, before adding any new inflow of claims.
But removing the means test could cause an influx of new claims, officials believe. The department has costed a potential inflow of the people who self-reported as carers in the census. Once the inflow is reckoned, the cost estimates rise to between €880 million and €2 billion a year, they said.
