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It’s ten days out from the general election and today the conversation will be dominated by Monday night’s leader’s debate. So, what do we know that we didn’t before? Jennifer Bray has summed it up in five key moments.
The big event of the day is Sinn Féin’s manifesto launch, with Mary Lou McDonald taking centre stage at Smock Alley Theatre alongside Pearse Doherty, Eoin Ó Broin, David Cullinane, and Claire Kerrane. That’s at 11am.
The Social Democrats will also launch their election manifesto at the Royal Institute of Architects on Merrion Square, that’s at 11am too.
Marie O’Halloran reports on the main points from the launch:
* Deliver 50,000 affordable purchase, 25,000 affordable rental homes and 70,000 social homes over the lifetime of the next government.
* End ‘no-fault evictions’ to protect renters and introduce a temporary three-year rent freeze.
* Replace rent pressure zones with a ‘reference rent’ system.
* Provide for salaried GPs and increase the mental health budget to 10% of the overall health budget.
* Increase funding for disability services by an additional €1.1 billion a year, to include a €30 per week cost of disability payment.
* Abolish the means test for carers and introduce a statutory right to homecare.
* A new public model of childcare; paid parental leave extended to the first year of a child’s life; and maternity, paternity and parent’s benefit increased to €350 per week.
* Install solar panels on 500,000 homes during the lifetime of the next government and make solar panels free for low-income households.
* Double the size of our natural parks and ensure they feature highly protected areas within them, where nature can be restored.
* A €5 billion climate transformation fund for investment in State-owned renewable energy and a €1.5bn fair transition fund for farmers
* Make education genuinely free; establish a new Déis+ scheme for schools in areas of extreme disadvantage; and work to remove faith formation from the school day.
* Establish directly elected mayors in all of our major cities.
* Introduce a €150 Sports and Cultural Activity voucher for all children aged 6 to 18 and free public transport for all children aged under 18.
* Introduce a lower 9% VAT rate for struggling food and beverage businesses in hospitality.
* Pursue a health-led approach to drug use and decriminalise the possession of small quantities of drugs for personal consumption.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald launches her party’s general election manifesto in Temple Bar. The top issue the party promises to prioritise is, unsurprisingly, housing.
But there was a tetchy exchange, Jen reports, between McDonald and a journalist:
“There was a head to head at the Sinn Féin manifesto press conference between Mary Lou McDonald and the Irish Daily Mail’s John Lee. Lee asked if McDonald would stand down if she does not manage to lead her party into government, to which she simply said: no. He then put it to her that she was dodging media scrutiny and not revealing locations of party canvasses. She rejected this, and accused him of being “sore” because she wouldn’t do his podcast. “If you think I am obligated to do your podcast, you are mistaken,” she said.”
Justice is the topic of debate, with policing and law and order issues on Claire Byrne’s RTÉ show this morning.
Sinn Féin’s Matt Carthy says Dublin is an under policed city, people don’t feel safe in their communities around the country.
Justice Minister Helen McEntee says there is more aggression in society post Covid, there is a need for more gardaí, but there is a need to focus on more than just garda numbers. Everybody is accountable here.
Labour’s Marie Sherlock says there no funding behind civic partnership. She reports huge frustration in public, saying they don’t feel safe. She says there are fewer gardaí now in Dublin than in 2018. Morale is low among gardaí. She says there is a need to reopen garda training college in Phoenix Park. Communities do not feel any impact from the measures taken to date, she says.
Peadar Tóibín – “I feel like I’m on Fr Ted with calls for another taskforce. There is a fall every year in the number of gardaí. More (Irish) were recruited for the Australian police force than gardaí.
Fianna Fáil’s James Browne defended his time as a Minister of State in Justice, saying he pushed funding for youth diversion projects. He foregrounds Fianna Fáil’s manifesto pledge to to split the Department of Justice. He says prisons overcrowded, there is record immigration, and the Department is not able to handle the responsibilities it has
McEntee says that introduction of body cams means that arrests would happen sooner now.
Matt Carthy says more gardaí is critical, saying the large parties of Government have decimated garda numbers. Need to retain the number we have so people do not resign, with record levels of people leaving the force.
James Browne says the way that gardaí are recruited needs to be changed – new pathways, and that there should be a graduate mechanism
The big event of the day is Sinn Féin’s manifesto launch, with Mary Lou McDonald taking centre stage at Smock Alley Theatre alongside Pearse Doherty, Eoin Ó Broin, David Cullinane, and Claire Kerrane. That’s at 11am.
The Social Democrats will also launch their election manifesto at the Royal Institute of Architects on Merrion Square, that’s at 11am too.
The Royal Irish Academy is playing host to climate hustings at 9.30am
The Greens are launching their warmer homes policy at a briefing in a retrofitted home in Walkinstown at 10.30am. Roderic O’Gorman, Patrick Costello and Cllr Ray Cunningham will be in the house.
Fine Gael is to outline its healthcare and disability plans in Dublin 2 at 11am.
Norma Foley is setting out Fianna Fáil’s plans for the education sector at Harcourt Terrace Educate Together national school. That’s at 11.15am.
Labour is launching its climate action and just transition policy – Ivana Bacik alongside election candidates Sadhbh O’Neill (Waterford) and Shane Folan (Dublin Bay North). That’s at midday.
At 12.50pm, Richard Boyd Barrett and Dublin North West candidate for PBP Conor Reddy will visit teachers protesting against leaving cert reform plans at St Kevin’s College in Dublin 11.
Well, the debate has come and gone. Read our snap analysis, colour and real time reporting
Harry McGee manned yesterday’s live story into the night to keep on top of things as they developed. Read more here
Jennifer Bray was in Montrose for the debate to see sparks fly. Read her on-the-whistle analysis here:
Miriam Lord on the usual hams and Michael Collins’ chest hair. Read, if you dare, here:
Our morning digest, majoring on what we learned from the debate, is here:
Sinn Féin’s manifesto launch is the big engagement of the day. Political editor Pat Leahy has the heads up on a few key points
– A €7 billion war chest for retrofitting, with 75 per cent put aside for low and modest income households, with a special fund to replace solid fuel heating systems
– €2.5 billion for a renewable energy investment fund
– Restoring the retirement age to 65
– A second Garda training college allowing for an annual intake of 500 extra recruits and a goal of growing numbers in the force to 16,000; a special focus on garda retention with a dedicated taskforce and focus on garda numbers in rural areas
– Seeking a united Ireland referendum by the end of the decade
– A referendum on votes for citizens in Northern Ireland and the diaspora in presidential elections
– Right to speak in the Oireachtas for Northern MPs
Our parliamentary correspondent Marie O’Halloran writes in with a few baubles from the Social Democrats manifesto launch, which is scheduled for 11am.
– Free public transport for under 18s
– 145,000 social and affordable homes, including 50,000 affordable purchase homes, 25,000 affordable rental units and 70,000 social homes
– An end to no-fault evictions and a three-year rent freeze
– A “reference rent” system pegging the rent to nearby local dwellings of a similar quality – while getting rid of Rent Pressure Zones
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