‘I’m sort of bracing myself for the days of counting ahead’: Foreign journalists’ views on the general election

Sinn Féin’s performance, housing, the Irish economy as well as just how long counting will go on for are the dominant issues raised by foreign journalists covering the general election this weekend.
With counting to begin on Saturday, international media have travelled to Dublin over recent days to report on the campaign while others are located here permanently.
Jude Webber, Ireland correspondent for The Financial Times, moved to the capital three years ago and this will be her first time covering an Irish general election.
Webber, who was based in Latin America for over 20 years, said: “There’s an interest obviously in knowing who the next Taoiseach is going to be and there’s a particular interest at the moment, especially in our paper, in how Ireland has all this money and what on earth are they going to do with it.
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“That’s the interest, and the exposure of Ireland to Trump, tax cuts and tariffs and what happens if the good times stop rolling basically.”
Webber said foreign media are “always fascinated” by the prospect of Sinn Féin having a successful election while the decision of Gerard Hutch to run “caught all of our eyes”.
“Sinn Féin is also interesting because what does that mean about a united Ireland is the inevitable question,” she said. “If Sinn Féin were to do really well in the election on Friday, I can guarantee that I will be asked ‘what does this mean for a united Ireland and are we closer to a united Ireland?’”
Webber said what surprised her most about the local and European elections in June was “just how long it is”.
She points out the first past the post electoral system is in place in the UK with results known a lot quicker compared to the Irish system of proportional representation with a single transferable vote (PR-STV).
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“I’m sort of bracing myself for the days of counting ahead,” said Webber.
Pontus Mattson, a journalist with Swedish Radio who is usually based in London, travelled over to Dublin earlier this week to cover the election.
He said housing appears to be the prominent theme of the campaign, with immigration also featuring but said “it looks like it’s going to be roughly the same parties who are winning, there’s not very much at stake”.
Mattson notes that in Sweden they use a proportional representation system for voting but do not have transferable votes.
“You only have one vote and it’s counted,” he said. “Often you know the result the next morning, if it’s not very tight, then there can be recounts and so forth. Often you know the same night.”
He said the Irish system of PR-STV is “very democratic” despite counting going on for longer.
“The first past the post British system is not very democratic,” he said. “The Labour Party have 64 per cent of seats but they only have 32 per cent of the votes. It’s a bit strange so I think it’s good in a way that you don’t waste votes, you can give preference to a second or third candidate.”
Paraic O’Brien, foreign correspondent with Channel 4 News, is originally from Ballinasloe, Co Galway but has been based in the UK for 27 years.
He travelled back to Ireland this week to report on the election and said much of the focus has been around housing and the role of Independents.
“Somebody described Friday to me as ‘Independent’s Day’ in terms of how well Independent candidates will do and we’ve been trying to understand why that is, why there are so many Independents running this time,” he said. “It makes Ireland quite unique in Europe having this number of Independents … Every Independent has their own story and their reason for running.”
O’Brien said there is a lot of interest in Britain around Sinn Féin “because of their history and their past” and the “extent to which they’ve reinvented themselves”. He also said he enjoys coming home to report on Irish politics because of “how accessible the senior leadership is, especially during the course of a campaign”.
“You don’t get that to the same extent in England, it’s all much more locked down and regulated and hard to get proper face time with senior politicians on the road,” he said. “But in Ireland, that’s much easier and long may it last.”