What the 2024 Party Manifestos Reveal: Issue Salience and Left-Right Positions

Abstract

This chapter examines the policy focus and policy positions of the major political parties competing in the 2024 Irish general election. Utilising state-of-the-art machine learning techniques, the chapter first explores the salience of 18 different policy areas in over 17,000 sentences from nine party manifestos, finding that housing and health policy dominate the 2024 election manifestos. Comparing changes in policy focus over time, the chapter next maps the rise of housing and health policy across the four elections since 2011. It then examines the left–right positions derived from party manifestos, demonstrating the existence of a clear left–right dimension of competition in Irish politics. The chapter further finds that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have moved leftwards. The space they have left behind on the right of the political spectrum has been claimed by Independent Ireland and Aontú.