Ten party leaders lined up for Monday night’s televised RTÉ debate. Here are the moments that stood out:
1. Simon Harris on the defensive over Fine Gael candidate John McGahon
From the outset, Taoiseach Simon Harris came under pressure over his defence of Fine Gael senator John McGahon who has been criticised over an assault case taken against him in the High Court. Speaking to the media outside RTÉ television studios just before the debate, where he was asked about criticism from Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald, Mr Harris retorted that “her press officer is in prison tonight” for child sexual offences – a reference to jailed former party official Michael McMonagle – while “John McGahon was found not guilty by a court of law”.
It was the first question that came up in the debate, too, as presenter Katie Hannon asked him about his defence of his candidate despite a video showing the extent of the incident. “I backed him on the basis of what had happened in court. If John McGahon had been criminally convicted, he would not be a candidate in this party,” said Harris. McGahon was “rightly punished” in a civil case and he was a “democratically selected candidate”, he added.
2. Sparks fly in debate on homelessness
Sparks flew when Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald raised the homelessness crisis, and said that the “faux concern for the future of children needs to be called out”. She appeared to be indirectly referring to the Fine Gael plan to set up a scheme of special savings accounts for parents. Her comments drew ire from Fine Gael leader Simon Harris.
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“How dare you? How dare you accuse anyone of faux concern for children. Who do you think you are that you have some kind of monopoly on compassion? I don’t know any member of Dáil Éireann in any political party or any candidate running for election who has a faux concern for children.”
He then went on to question McDonald on why she has promised to set aside only €15 billion over a number of years. “You are saying here tonight that in the Sinn Féin manifesto, you will only set aside €15 billion [for a rainy-day fund]. What are you going to do if president Donald Trump decides to impose tariffs? This is about having an ability to deliver on the services.”
3. Micheál Martin’s spiky response to the ‘100 years of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil’ mantra
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald made her pitch to voters in the debate, and that pitch was quite similar to the stall she set out in the 2020 general election – that it was time for change. McDonald said it was a “historic election” and that “the time is right” for a government without Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.
“We are fielding 71 candidates. If people support the idea that after a century of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, that now is the time for a change, of course we can make that happen. This rests in the hand of the people.” McDonald hit out at the Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil manifestos and said it was “almost like a list of all of the things that they haven’t done over the last 14 years”.
After weeks of sniping at each other, Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin and Fine Gael leader Simon Harris found something to come together on here.
“The 100 years narrative takes some nerve,” Martin said. “Someone needs to ask the searching question. Where was the Sinn Féin movement for the last 100 years? They opposed every single thing that built this country. They opposed membership of the European Union, which was transformative. They opposed every trade deal which created hundreds of thousands of jobs. You opposed our Constitution for the vast majority of that 100 years, and you murdered gardaí and soldiers as well. For the most part in the last 100 years, you opposed the State.”
McDonald was quick with her retort: “I think you can hear just by the tone of those remarks the politics of entitlement writ large. When we say there has been a century of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil in government ... they have not alone monopolised government but also the opposition seats.”
“You are trying to airbrush the past,” Simon Harris interjected.
4. Independent Ireland makes its pitch for post-election role
Independent Ireland is a relatively new political force, and leader Michael Collins revealed that party TDs would be subject to a whip on matters agreed in a programme for government. He said: “I am not going to rule out, or rule in, who we are going to go in with.” He said negotiations would happen on the basis of “who sits around the table and shows an interest in our policy”.
People Before Profit leader Richard Boyd Barrett said he wanted to see a left-leaning government. He said: “You can’t offer change, and then on the other side you prop up another Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil government.”
Joan Collins of Right to Change said: “The people want to see the back of the two parties who brought us to this state where people are facing a crisis in health, housing and in terms of getting assessments of need.”
Labour Party leader Ivana Bacik was selling her vision of “constructive change.” She was asked about reports that Labour would be the favoured party for Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil after the election. “I saw the reports and we are certainly a party that is serious about delivering change,” she replied.
“We have significant policy differences with each of the three biggest parties. The first thing I am going to do is speak with centre-left parties because we need a common platform. We will only talk to the three biggest parties from that common platform.”
Social Democrats co-leader Cian O’Callaghan, asked if he would be part of that left-leaning platform, said: “We will talk to all parties ... we will not participate in a government that simply goes in the same direction on housing.”
Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín said he wouldn’t talk to Fine Gael or the Greens after the election but didn’t rule out Fianna Fáil as he said they would be “easier to direct”. Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman said the previous years had not been easy with his Coalition partners, and that any Green participation in government would be dependent on green policies being at the core of a programme for government.
5. Housing gets a late look in
One of the big issues in this campaign is housing, but the topic was not substantially addressed until towards the end of the debate, somewhere around the 100 minute mark. Mary Lou McDonald promised to abolish stamp duty for all new buyers up to €450,000. She set out her opposition to the Government’s housing schemes, Help to Buy and First Homes.
This is the clearest line in the sand between the Government parties and the Opposition parties, with Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil pledging to keep those schemes, and Opposition parties decrying them. Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman was asked about his party member Francis Noel Duffy objecting to houses being built near his home. He said a system was in place to allow people to make objections. “If we want to exempt politicians from doing that, we could do that.”
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