Good morning colleagues,

The general election continues to dominate news headlines today as the bigger parties set out their spending plans with a focus on housing, health and childcare.

The focus of the weekend was the first opinion poll of the campaign, which revealed a surge in support for FF and a significant decline for FG, leading to headlines on the front page of the Indo and Mail this morning about a 'FG/Ministerial Meltdown', and speculation as to which of the smaller parties can position themselves to help form a government.