Murphy vs dodgy dealings, Rabbitte not welcome - All you need to know from Friday on the campaign trail

Takeaway 1

Catherine Murphy has never been backwards about coming forwards on dodgy political dealings.

Now her party, the Social Democrats, has launched proposals designed to crack down on corruption in political and public life.

It says public monies and resources are too often used as a “political slush fund where the needs of insiders or those within the golden circle are placed ahead of the public interest”.

Among its demands is to make senior public servants accountable for their actions. Good luck with that...

Takeaway 2

They say never work with children or animals, but Labour brought out the smallies to the launch of its plans for a public childcare scheme for working parents, alongside measures to improve pay for workers in the sector, increased oversight and proposals to reduce costs for providers.

The event appears to have gone very smoothly. As Conor Hunt of RTE tweeted: "No crying or tantrums at this morning’s @labour childcare policy launch... the babies were also well behaved"

No crying or tantrums at this morning’s @labour childcare policy launch... the babies were also well behaved #GE2020 @rtenews pic.twitter.com/ftXpHqMhFi

— Conor Hunt (@conorfhunt) January 24, 2020

Takeaway 3

Fianna Fáil TD Anne Rabbitte was confronted with a fairly unequivocal sign from one disgruntled constituent which told “Dear canversers (sic)” to have answers ready before knocking on the door.

The questions revolved around a number of areas including community issues, local policing, the defence forces and taxes.

However, the last line read: “If you are Ann (sic) Rabbitte please don’t knock on my door”.

As the sitting TD said herself: “You can never keep everyone happy in politics but this was a first.”

She added: “Maybe we should have knocked on the window instead.”

Well said

The Press Association's Aoife Moore reported that, after a conversation yesterday morning, a member of the public told Leo Varadkar he looked much better in real life, to which the Taoiseach noted: “I must look terrible on TV because people keep saying that”.

Good day: It was a good day for political journalists and commentators as they finally got to hear the manifestos of the two largest political parties. Until now, they have had to hear party figures utter those irritating words “That will be revealed in our manifesto”.

Bad day: After having to deal with the effects of a tummy bug on Thursday, Leo Varadkar must have had another sinking feeling in his stomach yesterday morning when he was first booed as he went to canvas on the Swords Road in Dublin and then was confronted in front of the media in Dublin city centre by a man who said to him: "I don’t see any politicians reaching out to homeless people. Do you care about their vote?”