Election 2024: Second and third preferences 'not really going to cut it' - Roderic O'Gorman
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Second and third preferences are "not really going to cut it", Roderic O'Gorman has said calling on voters to give the Green Party their number one.
Mr O'Gorman said it is clear that the smaller parties and independents will be crucial in any government formation and urged the people to think about what sort of smaller party they would like in power.
The latest poll has the Greens on 4%, the same as the Labour Party, which both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have indicated would be their preferred coalition partner.
Independents however are polling quite strong at 14% but Ossian Smyth claimed having a "ragtag bunch of independents who can't even agree among themselves" would be a disaster.
Mr O'Gorman echoed those sentiments as he warned against electing TDs who may shift the government to the right.
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"Do you want parties that are going to bring us to the right? Whether it's anti-climate, whether it's anti-choice, whether it's anti-equality," he said in the hours ahead of the polls opening.
He said it is less important to him how many parties there are in the new government, whether it ends up being three, four or five, but rather are the key Green policies included in the programme for government.
Mr O'Gorman said that smaller parties take a risk when it goes into government but claimed that, despite being subject to "a few pile-ons" over the last four-and-a-half years, the Greens delivered on much of its policy.
"Whether it's Leo Varadkar or the Healy Rae's, it is recognised across politics that we have had an over-sized influence on the policies of this government," he said.
Mr O'Gorman also made the claim that the Green Party "gave stability to this country" that was lacking between 2016 and 2020.
The Dublin TD took aim at the opposition when asked what he thought of Pearse Doherty asking people to "lend" their vote to Sinn Féin in this election.
"I won't be lending Pearse anything and I don't think Green voters will because when you look at how Sinn Féin have had absolutely nothing to say on central issues like climate, like public transport but you see how all over the place they are on Europe, for example, registering EU nationals here," Mr O'Gorman said.
Meanwhile, People Before Profit were also out making their last appeal to voters with Paul Murphy saying that this is a historic opportunity for change and that Ireland's first left government is possible.
It is no longer the case that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael were guaranteed to get back into government and the election would just be about choosing who would support them, Mr Murphy said.
He also said that Sinn Féin is wrong to claim that the only way to get rid of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael is to vote for it.
"That is not true mathematically. Sinn Féin is not standing enough candidates to form a government by themselves. The only way there will be a government without Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael, the only way there will be a left government is in a coalition between Sinn Féin, People Before Profit, the Social Democrats and left independents," Mr Murphy said.
On Friday, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald encouraged supporters of the party to transfer left, naming both People Before Profit and the Social Democrats as parties she would like voters to transfer to.
Mr Murphy was also critical of Sinn Féin to categorically rule out going into government with Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael, although he admitted that it has been "suggested".
People Before Profit leader Richard Boyd Barrett called on all left parties to make the "historic break" and commit to not going into government with either of the two main parties.
"Every time parties of the left - most often the Labour Party - have seen a surge of support and then taken that surge and used it to prop up Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael it has demoralised people," Mr Boyd Barrett said.
"It has convinced them that you never change anything in this country and it has done extreme damage to their own parties and to left-wing politics."
Mr Boyd Barrett also made an appeal to the Taoiseach not to call for a vote for People Before Profit because "that would be the kiss of death".