With 2014 behind us now, Newstalk Breakfast looked ahead to what will be the dominating issues for 2015.
With some changes to the political landscape, this year is expected to be dominated new parties and alliances ahead of the 2016 election with many speculating that Fianna Fáil may enter into coalition with Fine Gael for the next government, despite the fact that this has been dismissed by both parties.
The issue of water is unlikely to just go away over the coming months and with the Taoiseach's promises of changes to income tax and the USC, 2015 may prove to be a year of promises for parties in general as they attempt to win over the electorate.
This morning, Ivan Yates and Chris Donoghue discussed the four P's which would dominate 2015:
1. Parties
Ivan predicted that 2015 would see three new political parties, a grouping of the left, Shane Ross and Finan McGrath's possible alliance and Lucinda Creighton's new party which is now just operating under the hashtag #rebootIreland.
2. Promises
The Taoiseach has already begun to set the agenda for the New Year and Ivan claimed that this was going to be a year of promises in the run up to the general election which may include matters concerning water, local property tax and USC.
3. Pay
What's going to happen about pay? After six years of no increase, Breakfast predicted that there will be a pay increase this year. But will there be a national framework for that?
4. Property
This is an issue which has really dominated the headlines over the last month in 2014. People continue to try to get on to the property ladder but will house prices to continue to rise? And will they continue to rise in there's no supply?
Ivan commented: "The key to stabilising prices in cities is more houses."
You can listen to Breakfast's predictions here:
