World of Politics with Harry McGee

There are times when politics moves slowly and there are times when it moves at the dizzying stomach-churning speed of the hurdy gurdies in Leisureland during the summer.  It’s been like that for the past few weeks. What could be driving it? An election in the offing, perchance?

Anyway, we have now more or less got our date for the election. The three leaders met on Monday night and decided – surprise, surprise! – that the election will take place in 2024.

Tell me something I did not know.

The likely date is November 29. The Late Late Toy Show is scheduled for December 6. If the election were held that day, the Toy Show couldn’t take place. The studio would be needed for the election and getting it turned around from one big event to another would be impossible.

No politician in his or her right mind is going to be responsible for cancelling the Late Late Toy Show and becoming the biggest Grinch who ever stalked the land.

The sequence is as follows. The Taoiseach will go to Áras an Uachtaráin to ask the President to dissolve the Dáil. The Clerk of the Dáil, Peter Finnegan, will then issue a writ to all 43 constituencies, directing them to hold an election for the number of TDs in their constituencies. Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien then makes a Polling Day Order and sets the date for the election.

The election must be held between the 17th and 25th day after the issue of the writ by the Clerk of the Dáil. However, that excludes Sundays, public holidays – and Good Friday if it’s an Easter election.

So the campaign can essentially last between three and five weeks, when you add in Sundays and holidays – and we know the Government wants a short sharp campaign so it will go near the minimum.

We also know that the Dáil will come back in the week after the Hallowe’en break, the first week of November. That will be to allow for the passage of the Finance Bill, the last major piece of legislation that this Coalition needs to pass.

Pictured: Get ahead…Taoiseach Simon Harris is presented with a memento from Athenry by Cllr. Clodagh Higgins on his visit there to open her constituency office last week.