Factbox-What’s at stake in Ireland’s parliamentary election?

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DUBLIN (Reuters) – Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris on Friday announced the formal start of the country’s general election campaign, with voting to take place on Nov. 29. Here are some of the issues likely to dominate the election:

HOUSING

Ireland has struggled to accommodate a rapidly growing population since the construction industry melted down in the wake of a 2009 crash.

House prices have surged over 150% from 2013 lows and are growing around 10% per year, leaving lower income groups locked out of the market.

Average rents have roughly doubled in Dublin over the past decade, forcing many younger people to live with their parents and driving the country’s homelessness rate to its highest ever level. 

MULTINATIONAL WINDFALL AND THE TRUMP THREAT 

An explosion in corporate tax revenues, mainly paid by a few large U.S. multinationals who have European headquarters in Ireland due to the low tax rate, has given Ireland the healthiest set of public finances in Europe.

A recent additional 14 billion euro back-tax bill, paid by Apple on the orders of the European Union, pushed Ireland’s budget surplus to 7.5% of national income this year and is set to fund big campaign promises from government and opposition.

But the bigger issue is likely to be how the next government can defend the country’s low-tax business model against U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s plans to slash the U.S. corporate tax rate and impose tariffs. 

IMMIGRATION

Ireland is almost unique in Europe in having no significant far-right political party, and pride at the country’s history of emigration created a taboo around anti-immigrant rhetoric.

But that has begun to change since the arrival of almost 100,000 Ukrainian refugees – the largest number per capita in Western Europe – joining record numbers of asylum seekers and a huge multinational workforce amid a crippling housing crisis.

A riot triggered by anti-immigrant activists in November 2023 plunged central Dublin into chaos and there are ongoing protests in a number of towns around against proposed sites for housing refugees and asylum seekers. 

PUBLIC SERVICES

Ireland has high costs and substandard infrastructure in public services like health, energy and public transport. Ireland’s budget watchdog has said infrastructure provision is 25% lower than average for a high-income European country.

Stories of years-long waiting lists for health procedures and patients left in hospital corridors have long been media staples, but successive governments have struggled to improve services or contain costs. 

COST OF LIVING

While inflation in Ireland has fallen from over 9% to well under 2% since the summer of 2022, the cost of living still features in surveys of voters’ top concerns.

The recent budget included a package of “one-off” cost-of-living support payments for the third year running, this time totalling 2.2 billion euros, many of which will be doled out during the campaign.