DUBLIN (Reuters) – Ireland will have a general election this year with the polling date to be decided once the government passes some final pieces of legislation, Prime Minister Simon Harris said on Monday.
Harris has until March to go to the polls but analysts have for weeks seen November as the most likely date, when voters will start to benefit from the 10.5 billion euro budget giveaway resulting from Europe’s healthiest public finances.
“There’s going to be a general election this year. The government is going to conclude its work, it’s going to do that in an orderly manner,” Harris told a news conference.
Harris, whose Fine Gael party has moved ahead in opinion polls since he took over in April, reiterated that legislation including enacting the budget must be passed before he seeks a dissolution of parliament.
The leader of the junior coalition Green Party has proposed Nov. 29 as a polling date.
(Reporting by Conor Humphries, writing by Padraic Halpin; editing by William James)
