The general election will be formally called this afternoon.
Polling day is going to be on Saturday the 8th of February.
The 32nd Dáil will come to a close this afternoon with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to travel to Áras an Uachtaráin to meet the President.
He’ll ask Michael D Higgins to dissolve the Dáil and allow an election to happen on Saturday, February 8th, just 25 days from now.
The date caught many by surprise – it’s over a century since an election was held in Ireland on the weekend.
While we await a formal announcement, the election has fully kicked off.
Some candidates have erected posters already. The Taoiseach’s own election posters have started going up in Dublin West, despite that being illegal until everything is official.
There have been some notable late entrants to the race, including Verona Murphy, who’ll run as an Independent in Wexford, Marian Harkin, who’ll run in Sligo-Leitrim and SF MEP Matt Carthy.
Disability Minister Finian McGrath is among those who has decided not to run.
While here in Clare, nine candidates have declared their Dáil intentions so far, with four seats on offer.
