Ireland will go to the polls on February 8 after the prime minister called a snap general election.

On Tuesday Leo Varadkar ended weeks of speculation about the timing of the election when he formally requested that the president dissolves the current parliament.

Health, housing, Brexit and climate change are expected to be the main issues in the campaign.

Mr Varadkar had said he preferred a summer election but power has been ebbing away from the minority government over the past few weeks.

The government is supported by Fianna Fail, the biggest opposition party, in a confidence and supply arrangement but was expected to lose a no confidence motion in the health minister.

The Fine Gael-led administration suffered a series of by-election losses just before Christmas which deprived it of its working majority.