1. Taking no bull
Politicians can get themselves into all sorts of positions on the election campaign trail.
For Micheál Martin, it was on the back of a buffalo. “A jockey in the making,” one person joked as the Tánaiste awkwardly mounted the animal during a visit to the Macroom buffalo cheese farm.
Justice Minister Helen McEntee has said that women all over the country “know the feeling of men taking credit for their work”.
Her comments came after sharp exchanges with her Fianna Fáil counterpart Jim O’Callaghan, but Ms McEntee stopped short of accusing Mr O’Callaghan of sexism.
“I think there’s probably women all over the country who will understand what it’s like when men fight to claim credit for their work.
“Women all over the country can understand and see what they’ve heard over the last few days”.
The pair had taken part in a Prime Time debate on justice on Thursday evening, during which Mr O’Callaghan said that Fine Gael had adopted many of his party’s plans on justice, particularly around Garda retention.
Mr O’Callaghan also said that he had achieved more from the back benches than if he had been a junior justice minister.
An error between An Post and local authorities has seen tens of thousands of voters in Cork North-Central, Cork North-West and Galway East getting the wrong election material.
Fine Gael’s Colm Burke said that an explanation must be provided for how the Litir um Thoghcháin — the letter that every election candidate is entitled by law to send to voters — was delivered to scores of voters in the wrong constituency.
“It now appears that the election letter from candidates in Cork East have been sent to almost 15,000 voters in my own constituency of Cork North-Central and Cork North-West. This is because the information being used was based on the constituencies from the last general election. The same has happened in Galway East I understand, where voters have received letters from Roscommon-Galway candidates, and it may have happened elsewhere as well.
“Constituency boundaries have changed since the last election and this would seem to have been a contributing factor to these errors occurring, however the Electoral Commission reported on new boundaries in August 2023,” Mr Burke said.
A group of secondary students have reacted to one poster put up by an election candidate close to their school.
Councillor Glen Moore of the Irish Freedom Party erected campaign posters in the Dublin Mid-West constituency with the slogan “Ireland is full”.
However, pupils attending St Aidan’s Community School in Tallaght have now put up their own message, stating that “St Aidan’s is not full, everyone is welcome here.”
The colourful message, hung directly below Mr Moore’s poster also features painted handprints and the slogan “strength in inclusivity”.
Former Independent MEP Mick Wallace has confirmed that he will run in the general election just hours before the deadline for nominations closed.
“I’ll be dead straight with you, I am going to stand,” Mr Wallace told South East Radio.
However, he admitted that it will be very difficult for him to win a seat in the four-seater Wexford constituency, saying that existing candidates are “well ensconced on the ground” and have been “canvassing for a few years to win this seat and I’m arriving with a few days to go.”
People Before Profit wants to spend €2.3bn in just one year to roll out free public transport to all.
The plan outlined by the party is what “the Greens should have been pushing for in government if they are supposedly in there to achieve radical climate-carbon emission reductions”, Paul Murphy said.
The cost of making public transport free while also investing and expanding the current services is something the country can absolutely afford, according to Mr Murphy who said Ireland is a “very, very wealthy country”.
