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00:00The Sinn FĂ©in president on the campaign trail at a Gaelic school in her constituency. In
00:16the last election, the party on the nationalist left won the highest percentage of the vote,
00:22but led the opposition. This time Sinn FĂ©in is under pressure.
00:26Five years ago, people were so excited for change. People then began to question whether
00:31or not change is possible. But the good news is, in the last number of days, we're hearing
00:37again people saying, hang on, actually, we can make this change. And this election will
00:42boil down to a choice of either five more years of a government led by Fianna Fáil
00:47or Fine Gael, or the opportunity now for the first time for a government led by Sinn FĂ©in.
00:53In the last year, independents on the far right have been gaining ground on Sinn FĂ©in
00:58territory, including here in the heart of Dublin, where Malachy Steenson is a candidate.
01:03A lawyer, a city councillor who supports the reunification of Ireland, he's approached
01:08by a voter congratulating him for his stand against immigration.
01:13Anyone can see in Dublin today, it's not Ireland anymore. And it's the only man here that's
01:17speaking the truth.
01:27There are 100,000 Ukrainian refugees in Ireland, like this busker. This year, 16,000 asylum
01:35seekers also came to the country, too many for Malachy Steenson and his supporters. Only
01:4036% of those who live at the heart of Dublin are of a white Irish background.
01:46There are two main issues in this country at the moment, housing and immigration, and
01:50are both intrinsically linked.
01:52These residents of social housing want their street locked off, saying they fear for their
01:57safety.
01:58This time last year, we had three young children who were stabbed a stone's throw away from
02:04here by somebody who shouldn't have been in the country. In any country, if three young
02:10children are stabbed in the middle of the day coming out of school, there will be serious
02:14public disorder.
02:17Last November, Dublin erupted in violence after that stabbing. Young men radicalised
02:22on social media attacked police. Rioters wrongly believed a foreign national was responsible.
02:29The accused man is Algerian born, but an Irish national. The violence shocked the country.
02:36Nearby, a Somali community. Some have lived in Ireland for two decades, like this local
02:42business leader.
02:44Jamal Ali believes that despite the violence, relations with neighbouring residents are
02:48good. The real issue is homelessness.
02:51The area is very hard for the home. We're charging my customer for the homeless.
03:01Over 14,000 people live in emergency shelter. In Ireland, the population is growing fast
03:09and accommodation can be hard to find and expensive.
03:13Margie Lyons watches an election debate at home. Dismayed with government policies, she
03:19now supports Malachi Steenson, but used to vote for Sinn FĂ©in.
03:23I won't be voting for them again because they've betrayed the average working class person,
03:29especially in Dublin. And they are going along with the exact same policies that the government
03:35have gone along with.
03:36Margie Lyons is drumming up support for Steenson.
03:40Nobody has a problem with legal immigrants, it's the illegal immigrants, because we also
03:44have a homeless problem here.
03:47But the message is not always welcome at voters' homes. Derek Kenny, a chemist, is irritated
03:54by the rise in populism in this campaign.
03:57Two people hand me leaflets blaming immigrants and scaremongering in the area. It's not something
04:06I want to see and it's not something that Ireland represents to me.
04:11At school, Derek Kenny's teenage daughter Evie has heard anti-immigrant rhetoric.
04:16A lot of it is young teenage boys who pick up things that they find on the internet and
04:21they find it really interesting to speak about and they're very anti-feminist, very anti-immigration
04:27and they think it's cool to speak about it among their friend groups.
04:31Derek, his wife and four children recently managed to buy a small home.
04:35The housing crisis has come from repeated government failures and blaming immigrants
04:39is not the solution.
04:42About 500 apartments were built recently in the area. Only 65 of them are social housing.
04:49Here a three-bedroom flat costs almost €3,000 a month. For the majority, that's unreasonable.
04:56Experts agree that an urgent effort must be made to create affordable homes.
05:01There's a deficit of almost a quarter of a million homes and so we need somewhere in
05:06the region of 60,000 to 80,000 houses per year for the next decade or two.
05:12On his way to a TV debate, if he remains Prime Minister, Simon Harris promises to rise to
05:18the challenge.
05:19My party has published a plan to build 303,000 new homes over the next five years. The last
05:24thing Ireland needs right now is to tear up the plans, tear up the progress and start
05:29again.
05:30If the party ends up in power after the vote, concerns over housing and immigration will
05:35still need to be tackled.