The political parties are today focusing on financial and educational initiatives.
Fine Gael published its fiscal plan covering tax and spending programmes.
Under the plan, Fine Gael says it is targeting 73% of the reduction through savings in spending and 27% on new taxation measures.
Party leader Enda Kenny said that it believed that by 2014 this would bring Ireland's deficit to 2.8% of GDP.
Separately, the Labour Party is proposing to introduce a scholarship that would bring 30 students from Brazil, Russia, India and China to study in Ireland each year.
Labour says it would be modelled on the Mitchell Scholarship, which brings US students to Ireland for a year and pays their costs. It would cost €1.5m a year.
The intention is to build a bond between Ireland and those emerging economies, through students who are likely to become future leaders in their home countries.
Labour's finance spokesperson Joan Burton has said that Fine Gael's fiscal plan makes clear their intention to stick to Fianna Fáil's failed fiscal policies.
Their plan to take a further €10 billion out the Irish economy in the next three years is a recipe for further stagnation and joblessness, she said.
She said the message from Fine Gael is clear - they are quite comfortable with the Tory austerity consensus. They are embracing the same dangerous levels of austerity to which Fianna Fáil have signed up in the IMF/EU deal.
A Fianna Fáil news conference focusing on the issue of fiscal policy was postponed this morning, following a plane crash at Cork Airport. It was held this afternoon.
At the conference, Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan accused Fine Gael of dishonesty in the presentation of its fiscal plan.
He claimed that the party would impose local charges but was not accounting them as extra taxation.
Mr Lenihan also insisted that the tax on pension funds being used to pay for the retention of full tax reliefs amounted to confiscation.
He said the most worrying aspect of the proposals was the pledge to immediately increase the basic VAT rate to 22% in the next budget, claiming that the retail sector was not ready for such a hike the effects of which he insisted would be lethal.
And he maintained that the cuts in public sector jobs would inevitably result in job losses in frontline services.
Mr Lenihan said it was nonsense to claim there was €5bn in waste that could be clawed back.
He said it was an illusion to claim this money was available to be plucked from departmental budgets.
Mr Lenihan also insisted that he had the 'understanding' of the EU the ECB and the IMF for his decision to defer recapitalisation of the banking sector.
He reiterated that the Government did not have a mandate to take large financial decisions and that the cabinet had discussed the deferral and had given its approval to his opening discussions with the EU on the plan.
He said the institutions understood the plan and their comments had been coordinated with the Government.
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin earlier announced that he was cancelling his election canvassing today. He was due in Cork, Waterford and Wexford.
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin has launched its manifesto and is promising more frontline healthcare workers, fewer bureaucrats and an end to what it calls the two-tier health system.
The party says it will create 500 teaching posts, reducing the teacher pupil ratio to 20:1.
It says the Universal Social Charge will be abolished if it is in Government. It proposes a new health system that will provide care free to all at the point of delivery.
The Sinn Féin manifesto also commits to a referendum on Irish unity, and outlines how the party would co-ordinate economic planning on an all-Ireland basis.
Sinn Féin's Mary Lou McDonald said the manifesto provides for a Government minister to oversee, plan for, and manage the reunification of Ireland.
Sinn Féin Finance Spokesperson Pearse Doherty said his party is committing to reversing the savage cuts contained in December's budget such as the Universal Social Charge and the social welfare cuts.
Deputy Doherty said the exchequer deficit cannot be closed without growing the economy and tackling the jobs crisis.
Socialist Party
The Socialist Party has also launched its General Election manifesto, putting job creation and a rejection of the IMF/EU deal at the centre of its policies.
Speaking at the launch in Dublin, Joe Higgins, who is the party's candidate in Dublin West, said that the IMF/EU deal was an intolerable burden for the Irish people which would lead to an inevitable default.
He said that a future Fine Gael/Labour government would be committed to what he described as the same unjust and immoral policy as Fianna Fáil.
The Socialist Party says a programme of State investment in public projects is needed to create jobs, and the party is also committed to a nationalised banking system which it says would allow affordable credit to small and medium enterprises.
The Party says that the Irish people are voting not just for new government but for an opposition, and that the Socialist Party, as part of the United Left Alliance, would provide a strong, principled opposition in the Dáil.
Deputy leaders debate key issues
This morning, the deputy leaders of the three main parties debated their respective policies on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.
Mary Hanafin of Fianna Fáil, Dr James Reilly of Fine Gael, and Joan Burton of the Labour Party concentrated on measures to deal with the economy.
They were also asked what reassurances they would give to people who had expressed disillusionment about the state of the country's finances, and who saw no point in casting their vote.
All three urged people to vote and take part in shaping the future of the country.
Meanwhile, it has been confirmed that a record of 564 candidates have declared in the General Election.
Research carried out for RTÉ shows that the next highest number of candidates was in 1997, when 484 were nominated.
The research was carried out by James McBride of UCD's Irish Social Science Data Archive.
