Ireland's Taoiseach Simon Harris calls general election for this month

Ireland will go to the polls in a general election this month, the country’s leader Simon Harris has announced.

The taoiseach said the election will be held on 29 November, formally kicking off a truncated campaign which will last mere weeks.

Mr Harris was appointed Irish prime minister – the youngest in the country’s history – after Leo Varadkar’s shock resignation in March.

He will travel to Aras an Uachtarain on Friday, the official residence of the Irish president, to seek the dissolution of Ireland’s Dail parliament.

Mr Harris could have waited until March when the coalition’s five-year term comes to an end to go to the polls, but he has been paving the way for an election in recent weeks, announcing 10.5bn euros (£8.75bn) in tax cuts and spending increases last month.

“I’m looking forward to the weeks ahead and asking the people of Ireland for a mandate,” he told RTE News.

The election will bring to an end the historic coalition that brought together Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, who had been rivals dating back the the civil war.

The last election was seen as a monumentally successful performance for Sinn Fein, who had the highest percentage of first-preference votes, but the party has struggled in more recent local and European elections.