'You're failing miserably,' Heated exchange in the Dáil between Mary Lou McDonald and Micheál Martin

There was a heated exchange in the Dáil between Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald and Taoiseach Micheál Martin over the issue of housing. It comes as campaign teams are hitting the doors again just days out from the by-election in Dublin Bay South. Heading into the last week of campaigning, it's seen as a two-horse race between Fine Gael and Labour. It's been a short but frantic campaign on the ground in Dublin Bay South and most involved in the by-election believe it will be a straight shoot-out between two candidates - Fine Gael's James Geoghegan and Labour's Ivana Bacik. A recent constituency poll for the Irish Times had Sinn Féin's Lynn Boylan a distant third, slightly ahead of Claire Byrne for the Greens or Fianna Fáil's Deirdre Conroy. Senior Lecturer in Political Science at DCU Eoin O'Malley says this constituency can blow in the wind when it comes to favourites. "Dublin Bay South, as it is now, is a sort of constituency that tends to be very fashion-conscious," he said. "It likes to go with whatever the latest trend is so in a way, the Labour candidate Ivana Bacik is almost ideal for it." Housing has emerged as one of the key issues in the constituency which holds the leafy suburbs of Donnybrook, Ballsbridge and Sandymount - but also more working-class areas like Ringsend and Irishtown. There will be extended hours for voting on Thursday, in what will be the first election in Ireland since the pandemic started.