Harris' mention of 'March election' met with applause and laughter

James Cox

Taoiseach Simon Harris continues to insist the Government will serve its full term to March 2025, despite persistent rumours of a November general election.

Speaking about the next general election during an appearance at the Kennedy Summer School in New Ross, Co Wexford, the Taoiseach paused before putting particular emphasis on a "March general election".

The comment was met by applause and laughter by the 300 people in attendance at St Michael's Theatre. In response, Mr Harris smiled and continued speaking.

A decent performance by the coalition parties in the recent local and European elections, coupled with an underwhelming performance by Sinn Féin, prompted speculation that an autumn general election is the most likely decision from the Government leaders.

If they choose to go the full term to March 2025, they will face five byelections, while Sinn Féin will also have a chance to regain momentum.

In an interview with BreakingNews.ie, former minister for agriculture Ivan Yates suggested Friday, November 15th is the most likely date.

While Mr Harris and Tánaiste Micheál Martin continue to insist the election will be in March, any announcement of an earlier date will not come until after the October 1st Budget at the earliest.

Speaking at the event on Friday, Mr Harris said: "If the next election is a contest as to who can most eloquently define a problem, where does that get us?

"We have a beautiful democracy, don't like us? Vote us out, that's how it works, but you still need good people to contest elections.

"That's how you have elections that are about ideas, about community, and about solutions."

Without mentioning the opposition leader, he also seemed to get in a reference to Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald, who was criticised for not having figures on hand during a recent RTÉ interview about the party's migration policy.

"We have to move beyond people saying 'sure don't be asking me those figures, I didn't know I was meant to bring them with me'.

"Come on, we have to have mature political debate around the issues that matter in Ireland."

He made the comment about the March election when discussing his travels around the country over the summer.

Mr Harris said he found Irish people are fundamentally decent, and rejected the assertion that anger has become a defining feature of the country.

"I travelled around this country extensively, as you may have noticed, over the summer months... for the March election.

"In doing so, I've met thousands of people, and not people specially selected to meet me... people in all sorts of scenarios.

"Some people will never vote for me in a month of Sundays, some people think we're doing a great old job and will vote for us, others are in the middle. My fundamental takeaway from this is decency.

"I'm not allowing colourful characters from other jurisdictions, or the amplification on social media, to suggest that all of a sudden we've lost that sense of meitheal, lost that sense of community, decency and respect. I don't think that is reflective of the overwhelming majority of people in Ireland."