Author: Shawn Pogatchnik

DUBLIN — Ireland’s Prime Minister Simon Harris fired the starting gun Friday on a three-week election campaign that the two main government parties — aided by bloated state coffers and a giveaway budget — are widely forecast to win. Fresh off the government jet from a European Union leaders’ meeting in Budapest, Harris stood on the steps of his central Dublin office to declare: “Ladies and gentlemen, if you give me your trust, I will give you my all.” The 38-year-old, who took charge of his center-ground Fine Gael party only seven months ago, said he hoped to return as…