The three leaders of the Coalition parties agreed on Monday night that the general election would be held this year – but there was no agreement on a date, or on when the election would be called.
Taoiseach Simon Harris indicated his preference for a Friday but the leaders did not formally agree a day or date.
Officials were tight-lipped about Monday night’s meeting, which came after the Green leader Roderic O’Gorman’s call for a November 29th election caused significant anger in both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.
A three-line statement was issued by the leaders after their meeting on Monday night, which said simply that the leaders had agreed the general election will take place in 2024, that they had agreed the “passage of the Finance Bill is the priority for the Government”, and that the committee stage of the Bill will commence on the 5th of November.
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Mr Harris has repeatedly reminded his Government partners that seeking a dissolution of the Dáil and prompting an election is his prerogative – though setting the actual date and deciding on whether there should be a three- or four-week campaign is formally a responsibility of the Minister for Housing and Local Government, Darragh O’Brien of Fianna Fáil.
Sources said on Monday that the exact choreography of all this would be discussed and agreed between the three leaders. But that does not appear to have happened yet.
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A series of Bills – including the Occupied Territories Bill, the Defamation Bill and the Mental Health Bill – are now unlikely to be completed and it will fall to the next government to progress them, or leave them lapse.
However, officials have advised that other essential Bills – including the Appropriation Bill and a Bill authorising spending on the Oireachtas – will still have to be concluded before the election is called.
On Monday, Minister for Finance Jack Chambers said that the he would accelerate the passage of the Finance Bill through the Oireachtas to ensure it is passed before an election.
When the Bill returns to the Oireachtas – after a week off for the midterm break next week – it is likely that the Government will seek to take all its remaining stages to enable it to be passed in the Dáil that week – potentially clearing the way for an election to be called as early as that week.
In normal circumstances it would take until the end of November or the beginning of December to clear all stages.
“That’s clearly not going to happen,” Mr Chambers told reporters in Dublin.
Mr Chambers, who is also the Fianna Fáil director of elections, said the three Government parties will be putting forward separate manifesto and there will be no electoral pact.
Both the Taoiseach and Tánaiste Micheál Martin said the same thing at separate events on Monday. But both added that they expected voters may transfer between the Government parties.
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