Election 2024: Six things we learned from the campaign today
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The main focus of campaigning today was housing.
Fianna Fáil stressed the need to get people back living in our cities and towns by promising measures to encourage the conversion of over-the-shop units.
The Green Party announced proposals to bring more derelict houses back into use, while Labour put forward a new deal for renters.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said her party would cut rents and ban rent increases for three years.
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"The refusal of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil to implement a ban on rent increases has been disastrous. In the last four years, average new rents have increased by €6,000 a year. That is deeply shocking," Ms. McDonald said.
A Fianna Fáil candidate and GP came forward to say he has "mixed feelings" on a core policy put forward by his own party around the decriminalisation of drugs.
Dr. Martin Daly said, "One of the concerns I have about it is some of the new, stronger forms of hashish leading to serious mental health problems in our younger people.
"There certainly is a whole criminal industry that has grown up around the supply of drugs."
Fine Gael leader Simon Harris has said he is against this measure.
The Green Party has written to RTÉ Director General Kevin Bakhurst, calling for the broadcaster to host a televised debate on climate change ahead of the general election.
The Greens have also issued a letter to the leaders of all Irish political parties, calling for them to engage with such calls.
In a letter to the broadcaster, Green Senator Pauline O'Reilly said that it was "very hard to understand" why RTÉ is not holding a climate debate.
Oxfam Ireland Chief Executive Jim Clarken has called for Gaza to be a central issue for all political parties in the general election campaign.
He referred to the ongoing atrocities in Gaza as "a campaign of ethnic cleansing," with the humanitarian situation now at the worst point since hostilities began more than a year ago.
Meanwhile, as invited guests arrived at Dublin's Mansion House for the annual journalism awards, which Tánaiste Micheál Martin attended, a silent protest took place outside to honour the 188 journalists who have been murdered in Gaza since October 7.
The deadline for registering to vote has now passed, but more than 134,000 people have registered to vote since the beginning of September, and 63,000 people have updated their registrations, according to the Electoral Commission.
Around 3.5 million people are eligible to vote in the election on November 29.
Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael want to drag Ireland into the "military escalation of geopolitical conflict," according to People Before Profit candidate Richard Boyd Barrett.
He said the two parties plan to remove the triple lock to allow for the deployment of large numbers of Irish troops to fight in wars.
A Fianna Fáil spokesperson denied this, adding: "A big difference between us and the far left is that we do believe that we have to defend our vital national interests, such as the ocean cables on which so much of our economy relies."
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