An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has ruled out the prospect of an early general election, and has said he will lead the party to the polls.
Speaking to the Irish Examiner, Varadkar said he is “hoping to form a Government afterward and we’ll see what happens after that.”
“There are no plans for an early general election, we are focusing on the job, and there are a lot of the things the Government needs to get done in the next couple of months, particularly helping families with the cost of living and supporting business, making our communities safer and really driving forward home ownership.”
Despite rumours of a possible winter general election in the media, Varadkar stated that the next national elections that will occur are the local and European elections, in June 2024.
The Taoiseach noted that it is “a big mistake” to think that local elections predict the outcome of general elections.
“That’s what happened last time. It was a very bad day for Sinn Féin and yet they were the largest party within seven or eight months without changing their leader.”
Varadkar said was optimistic about his parties chances at both a local and European level, with all five current Fine Gael MEPS running next year, and hoping to retain the 250 seats won at a local level in 2019, saying he was going to “put everything behind them.”
The next general election will be fought following the redrawing of constituency boundaries, with the review due in August.
At present, 160 TDs are elected across the country, with 80 needed for a majority.
A bare minimum of 11 TDs will be added at the lower end of recommendations, with as many as 21 TDs added if the higher end of recommendations is applied.
The Taoiseach discussed the difficulties all parties have in getting candidates to run, particularly at a local level, in light of the level of abuse leveled at politicians on social media platforms.
“I had the chance in the last couple of weeks to sit down with some people whom I’m keen to have run in elections — they are my age and younger and you know, some are women, they do express concerns about safety or the impact on the family life, or abuse on social media.”
“All those things are real, what I would always say back to them is the positive sides of politics, the opportunities are very real too, they are very great — the chance to represent your community, the chance to represent your country, the chance to move away from giving out about things that frustrate you to actually being able to change them — that can be very rewarding as well.”