General election to take place in 2024 after lengthy meeting of Government leaders
Three Held A The Party Lengthy Evening On Monday Meeting Leaders
The three party leaders have agreed the general election will take place in 2024.
However, the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and Green Party leader are in agreement that the Finance Bill, which enacts measures announced in the budget, is the priority and must be passed before an election.
It will now go to committee stage on November 5.
Ahead of the lengthy meeting, Taoiseach Simon Harris insisted that Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman did not go behind his back to call for a November 29 polling day, saying he was “absolutely entitled” to his opinion.
“I do agree with Minister O’Gorman on the need to actually provide a sense of clarity on this and there’s no issue with that at all,” Mr Harris said.
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Meanwhile, the Tánaiste has ruled out a formal voting pact between the coalition partners as speculation about the date of the general election continues.
Earlier in the day, Finance Minister Jack Chambers confirmed that he was on standby to change the timeline of the Finance Bill to accommodate a general election.
"It's clearly going to happen before Christmas," Mr Chambers said of the election.
"I'm open and prepared to do that to make sure that all the measures we've set out in Budget 2025 are enacted," said Mr Chambers, who has been appointed Fianna Fáil's director of elections.
Meanwhile, Fine Gael has appointed former Laois Offaly TD Olwyn Enright its national director of elections.
Ms Enright said she expects the party will have between 75 and 80 candidates running in the election, with 71 candidates already selected across 41 constituencies.