Ireland poll is anyone’s contest – Varadkar
THE IRISH General Election was described by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar as “wide open” as the first ballots were cast.
Voting began on 12 of the country’s Atlantic islands off the coast of counties Donegal, Galway and Clare yesterday morning.
Electoral officers were escorted by gardai as they delivered the boxes to some of the most remote locations in the country ahead of the opening of mainland polling stations across the rest of the nation today.
The leaders of the three biggest parties were making their final moves of the campaign.
Mr Varadkar was in Ennis, Co Clare, where he expressed confidence his party would be returned on top despite recent opinion polls, which have indicated a surge in support for Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein.
The Taoiseach said: “I think those predictions are going to be wrong.
“Any opinion polls that have been taken were taken before the big debate on Tuesday night which I think I did quite well in,” he said.
Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin has been in Cork, where he appealed to people who are undecided not to vote for Sinn Fein, saying: “They have not cleansed themselves of their bloody past.”
He added: “It is interesting because this morning I was in another part of Cork and voters have been coming up to me and asking me to promise that I won’t go into government with Sinn Fein.”
Canvassing in Dublin, Sinn Fein president Mary-Lou McDonald pledged to use whatever mandate her party received wisely.
She said: “The people were ahead of the curve in real terms in articulating the kind of profound change they want.
“People were telling us, ‘We want change and, by the way, you are it’.”