The Tánaiste has rejected Mary Lou McDonald’s claim that it is an insult to voters for Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to rule out forming a government with Sinn Féin.

Micheál Martin has stated again this week Fianna Fáil will not negotiate with Sinn Féin.

Deputy McDonald has described that approach as insulting to the electorate, saying her party hopes to form a government without Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael, but will speak to all parties after the election.

“I would ask Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to try and muster at least a little bit of respect for the communities and the voters that vote for us,” she said.

“They're not second-class citizens - they are equal voters, just like everybody else.”

The Fianna Fáil leader, Micheál Martin, said he thinks Deputy McDonald’s statement is a contradiction.

“Sinn Fein has said that the last party they should go into government with is Fianna Fáil, so, if that's the case, I don't understand how Mary Lou believes that if another party says something similar, that it's an insult,” he said.

Sinn Féin on housing

Elsewhere, Sinn Féin has said it is "ready to go for day one" when it comes to tackling the housing crisis.

The party has reintroduced its ‘Home of your Own’ housing plan, as part of its general election campaign.

Sinn Féin promises to build 370,000 homes, with affordable houses starting at €250,000, if elected.

Sinn Féin Housing Spokesperson, Eoin Ó Broin, said the plan is ready to go “for day one”.

“The only way we can end homelessness and slash local authority housing waiting lists, the only way we can tackle the affordability crisis for people who want to rent or buy affordably is the scale of ambition in this plan,” he said.

“We set out in great detail how we would do it.”

Green Party sequel

The Green Party Deputy Leader Róisín Garvey has compared the party to Paul Mescal.

At its manifesto launch this morning, the party promised to lower the voting age to 16, open up the Help to Buy scheme to more renters, and to invest billions in public transport.

During the press conference, party leadership was asked why people should vote for a sequel of this Government, when the original was disappointing – with deputy leader Garvey giving an unusual answer.

“I was just going to say, I think Paul Mescal is going to be a better sequel to Gladiator. So maybe you’ll end up eating your words there,” she said.

“Also, in fact, it's more important ever that we have a sequel for the Green Party, because, you know, as I said, the climate change debate is over, so it's not that we want a sequel - we need a sequel.”

Labour on tax

Labour is pledging to spend the Apple Tax money across housing, health and climate measures.

Among the suggestions is to spend €6-billion to fund the development of a State Construction company for building homes.

At its finance policy launch this afternoon, the party also pledged to increase public spending - instead of prioritising tax cuts.

Labour's Finance Spokesperson, Ged Nash, said the outgoing government's approach to income tax has been “irresponsible”.

“There is a very clear choice,” he said.

“You engage in a frenzy of unfunded tax cuts, essentially funded by the windfall tax receipts that this government say they are concerned about on the sustainability of them - or you decide that you can have hospital beds, well-funded third level institutions.”

Simon Harris on decriminalising drugs

Taoiseach Simon Harris is questioning proposals from both Fianna Fáil and the Green Party to liberalise Ireland's drug laws.

Fianna Fáil has committed to decriminalising drugs like cannabis, for personal use - while the Greens have pledged to put cannabis legislation on the table in government negotiations.

Simon Harris, however, has said he has concerns with the use of cannabis.

“When government is pursuing a number of initiatives from a public health point of view around smoking and around vapes - it sounds counterintuitive to me that there would be mixed messages sent in relation to cannabis, because I do think there are real health dangers in relation to cannabis,” he said.

More general election campaign coverage to come…

Split image: L, Micheál Martin, R, Mary Lou McDonald.