00:00A lot of voting already underway here in Ireland, but who's going to win?
00:03Well we already know the answer to that. Nobody, no party will win outright at least,
00:08but we'll need coalition partners to form a government.
00:12It's a three-way race between incumbents Fianna Fáil led by Micheál Martin,
00:15Fianna Gael headed up by 38-year-old Simon Harris,
00:18two centrist Conservative parties who have passed power between each other for a century now.
00:24Sinn Féin is a leftist party advocating for a united Ireland
00:28led by Mary Lou Macdonald.
00:30The three biggest issues in today's election are housing, housing and housing.
00:35Home and rent prices have soared by over 40% since the start of the pandemic,
00:40homelessness and immigration rising sharply with them.
00:43Ireland went from 3.5 million population in 1990 to over 5 million today
00:48and economist David McWilliams says the country has a first world income
00:52with third world infrastructure, housing, health care, child care, immigration.
00:56Those top the agenda in an election that's too close to cause.
01:01Polls open this morning at 7am, they'll close at 10pm this evening
01:04when we'll hear the first indication of results with an exit poll.
01:08Stay with us here to find out all about it.
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