Sinn Féin and the Social Democrats have launched their respective manifestos as campaigning continues ahead of next week's General Election, while Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has refused to be drawn on a potential coalition with Labour.
Speaking at the launch of her party's election manifesto, which focuses on the cost of living, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said people are feeling worse off than they did when the current coalition entered office, adding that "everything has gone up".
"A very substantial number of people are struggling, including those that are up early - as they say - going to work," she said.
"Between mortgage, if you have one, rent and childcare costs, most people will tell you know, if you ask them 'how are you managing, do you feel better off now than you did five years ago?’ people will tell you: ‘No: Everything has gone up.'"
Ms McDonald said she would not step down as leader of Sinn Féin if her party is not elected to government.
"No. Sinn Féin decides at our Ard Fheis who the leader of our party is, that is how we do it," she said.
On public services, she said it is "ironic" that the country has so many resources but is failing to provide the basics.
"So, our proposition in this manifesto is that the basics have to work again for everyone," Ms McDonald said.
Asked if this could be seen as "interference by a government", Ms McDonald said it was "about peer review particularly when the national broadcaster in particular should be the premier trusted source of information".
She said: "If anything far from being an interference, it is a trust and confidence matter."
Sinn Féin has also committed to commissioning an "independent human rights and journalistic expert review into the objectivity of coverage by RTÉ of the Israeli genocide in Gaza and other international conflicts".
Other parties have been criticising the manifesto.
Fine Gael leader Simon Harris said there are a number of "very concerning elements" in it, and it would "eat in very significantly" to the money the government has put aside to protect future generations from austerity.
He also said described their proposals to set up a committee to oversee RTÉ’s objectivity on the Middle East and Gaza as chilling and "extraordinarily concerning".
Tánaiste and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin accused Sinn Fein of insulting the electorate by not publishing its manifesto prior to the first televised leaders' debate.
He said: "I thought what was incredible was that Sinn Féin didn't produce a manifesto before it, or the Social Democratic party didn't either."
Read more on Sinn Féin's and the Social Democrats' respective manifestos:
Housing a 'priority' for Sinn Féin as it launches election manifesto
Social Democrats pledges 145,000 social, affordable homes
Meanwhile, Social Democrats deputy leader Cian O'Callaghan has said it is not credible to suggest that tax cuts can be made alongside improved investment in public services.
Speaking at the launch of his party's manifesto, he said: "It is not compatible. I think most of the electorate know that.
In contrast to the larger parties, the Social Democrats is not suggesting any income tax cuts if they are elected to government. Mr O'Callaghan also defended the party's wealth tax, which will only raise €150m to €200m.
The tax would be levied at a rate of 0.5% on assets above €1m (net of liabilities), excluding the family home, business assets and farm land. The levy would rise to 1% on assets over €2m.
The outgoing Dublin Bay North TD said it was a good measure which would redistribute wealth and could be used to fund plans for a Deis plus model.
He added that it was not a tax on homes but instead, it was a tax on super wealth.
On the party's housing proposals, Mr O'Callaghan said phasing out the Help to Buy and Shared Equity schemes were not red lines, but delivering 50,000 affordable homes over five years must be agreed.
He added that the two schemes had inflated house prices.
Overall, the party wants to build 50,000 affordable purchase homes, 25,000 affordable rental and 70,000 social houses over a government term.
The party said it would end no-fault evictions and introduce a temporary three-year rent freeze.
It wants to replace rent pressure zones with a reference rent system.
Read More:
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Outgoing Wicklow TD Jennifer Whitmore also attacked Fine Gael, saying it was not credible that the party would bring forward new proposals after 14 years in power.
"You can have as much new energy as poises possible but if you're pushing new energy into old ideas and failed policies, you're just going to get more failed policies," she said.
Martin refuses to be drawn on potential Labour coalition
Meanwhile, Mr Martin has said there are a number of centre-ground parties he would be open to negotiating with post-election.
However, he refused to be drawn on any speculation that his party was looking to the Labour Party, instead of the Greens, as a potential junior partner in a future coalition.
Mr Martin said: "I think fundamentally each party has to maximise its own vote.
"Fianna Fáil has to maximise its vote, get as many TDs as we possibly can. Get elected. It's a very fragmented situation.
"We will work with parties that support the core principles of Fianna Fáil, which is to protect the pro-enterprise economy that we have, and that has worked well for the country in terms of creating resources; invest in public services; be positively pro-European Union; and have basic democratic principles.
"There are a number of parties in the centre ground potentially after this election who we would be open to negotiating with, but I think we're getting ahead of ourselves if we are into the business of specifying particular parties at this stage."
Speaking while canvassing in the five-seater Cavan-Monaghan constituency, Mr Martin was also asked his view on Mr Harris' continued support for John McGahan's Fine Gael candidacy in Louth.
He said he was "surprised" at the continuing support for Mr McGahan, given the video he had seen was "quite shocking" and that "the level of violence was unacceptable".
Fianna Fáil's education policy was today launched by Minister for Education Norma Foley, who outlined her party’s plans for the sector if they are re-elected.
The proposal includes increasing the budget for Special Education to nearly €3bn per year and reducing the pupil teacher ratio to 19:1.
She also spoke of plans to increase school transport places by 100,000 by 2030 and a €1 billion investment in PE facilities.
It comes as Mr Harris said he had received assurances that nobody would sleep outside at the Crooksling site tonight, saying that he was not happy about what had happened there.
Hundreds of people are currently sheltering in damp and leaking tents at the site for international protection applicants in Co Dublin.
Videos taken yesterday showed damp and cold conditions inside the tents in Crooksling.
Mr Harris said the explanation as to why they were not moved inside "is not good enough in my view".
The Fine Gael leader said there were specific protocols about out what should happen in bad weather.
Labour launch climate policy
The leader of the Labour Party, Ivana Bacik has said advancing the climate agenda is not the preserve of any one party or political movement.
The Labour leader was speaking at the launch of her party's policy on climate and just transition policy.
She said: "I's vitally important that we see the necessary numbers, the necessary impact in the next Government of green policies.
"That is policies that we in Labour absolutely believe are fundamental to our vision of change...our left of centre, social democratic and environmental vision of change."
She was responding to a question about statements from the Green Party expressing doubt that progress on climate ambitions would continue if that party was not in government.
However, Ms Bacik said that after the election she will reach out to the Greens and other parties of the left.
She said: "After the election is over and the people have spoken the first thing that I will do is go to the leaders of the Green Party and other centre left parties that share our vision and other centre left groupings, because we want to ensure there is a critical mass of TDs that will shape the next government's policy that will ensure we the ambitious and radical measures that we have set out here."
Aontú launches common sense accountability policy
Aontú Leader Peadar Tóibín today said his party wants to see the introduction of a junior minister who will be responsible for ensuring there is no waste of taxpayers' money across all government departments.
Mr Tóibín was speaking outside the new National Children's Hospital in Dublin this morning as he unveiled Aontú's 'common sense accountability policy'.
Mr Tóibín said the policy would be centred around people taking personal responsibility for any public money they spend.
He said: "First of all, we want a junior minister who is selected to make sure that there's no waste across departments and that junior minister is put into the Department of the Taoiseach and is reporting to the Taoiseach on a weekly basis.
"We also want a situation whereby senior civil servants have their employment contracts changed [and] written into them that there is protecting the public purse front and centre of those contracts and we need a situation that if they don't fulfill protecting the public purse, that there is discipline up to and including losing their job.
"For the truth of the matter is, if people were to waste such money in the private sector, they would lose their jobs. The reality is, if Simon Harris was a CEO of a large company that signed the contracts which saw such levels of waste, Simon Harris would be fired."
Additional reporting Evelyn O'Rourke, Marc O'Driscoll, Samantha Libreri, Joe Mag Raollaigh
