Live BlogLAST UPDATE | 6 mins ago
THE FINAL LEADERS’ debate of the general election campaign is underway on RTÉ.
The leaders of the three largest political parties are facing questions from Miriam O’Callaghan and Sarah McInerney on a special edition of Prime Time.
The last leaders’ debate, featuring ten leaders, was a somewhat frustrating affair but Fine Gael’s Simon Harris, Fianna Fáil’s Micheál Martin and Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald will have more time to deliver standout moments tonight.
Coverage began on RTÉ One, the RTE News Channel and the RTÉ Player tonight from 9.35pm and is due to finish at 11.10pm.
The Journal is following every twist and turn of the final leaders’ debate.
Reporter Lauren Boland is liveblogging throughout the evening. Political journalists gathered at RTÉ’s studios in the hours before the debate, including our politics editor Christine Finn, who is reporting live from the Prime Time set. Our FactCheck editor Stephen McDermott is on hand to factcheck the standout claims made by the party leaders.
Presenter Sarah McInerney cites findings that “radical action” is necessary to address the housing crisis.
She asks Micheál Martin what kind of radical action would Fianna Fáil take – she asks a couple of times, interjecting as he talks first about the past and then about the party’s target for 60,000 houses per year. He insists reaching that target would be radical – “We don’t need to go back to the drawing board as some are saying.”
Harris defends Fine Gael’s record, saying its the top priority and that it would spend €40 billion over the next five years to deliver 303,000 homes – downplaying remarks by former Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy that housing was not made a priority. Harris now brings up the idea of “country before party” himself – when did that become a thing? – and says bluntly: “My party has never crashed the economy.”
McInerney challenges Sinn Féin’s housing promises and whether banks are on board. McDonald is adamant there’s no barrier on the banking side to her plans for the housing sector.
There’s been a fair bit of back and forth so far overall – both presenters trying to get straight answers out of the party leaders, who can stray sometimes from the questions they’re asked.
There’s a looming shadow hanging over many economies today as US President-elect threatens new tariffs on multiple countries – Ireland isn’t one of them, but we could face knock-on impacts.
The leaders are asked about what they would cut from their plans if they needed to reign in their spending.
McDonald says what Sinn Féin wouldn’t do would be to impose austerity.
Harris says Fine Gael would borrow if necessary or introduce plans over a longer period of time than intended.
Martin says that “the one thing that people can be guaranteed with Michéal Martin, and with myself, is that I will always put the country before party”, and talks about Fianna Fáil’s role in setting up the Future Ireland fund for future spending.
(That’s not a typo, by the way, he did indeed say both his name and “myself”.)
Our FactCheck Editor Stephen McDermott is live fact-checking this evening’s debate.
He’s already checked a couple of claims from Harris, Martin and McDonald around the cost of living.
Firstly, Simon Harris said that you’d have to “go back to the 70s to find a harsher period of inflation” in Ireland before the level of inflation seen in 2022.
While his broad point that Ireland’s inflation was at its highest in decades, 2022 saw the highest rise in the CSO’s Consumer Price Index since 1984, when annual inflation ran at 9.7% (compared to 9.1% in August 2022).
Micheál Martin also said that post-Covid problems and the war in Ukraine “really drove the energy price increases” seen in 2022.
While that is also true to an extent, a €15 increase in the price of fuels as a result of carbon tax hikes between 2021 and 2022 also played a role.
Finally, Mary Lou McDonald claimed that carbon taxes don’t have the effect of getting Ireland to its 2030 target on emissions.
Although the carbon tax has contributed to a reduction in Ireland’s emissions, Ireland is currently projected by the Environmental Protection Agency to achieve only a 29% reduction in emissions by 2030, compared to a target of 51%.
We’re rocketing through issues – the questions have turned to cost of living.
Martin opens his answer by saying that Covid and the post-Covid period has had a significant impact. Presenter Miriam O’Callaghan challenges him on that – not everything can be brought back to Covid – but he sidesteps around it.
McDonald says Sinn Féin wants to deliver “permanent ongoing savings”. She says she supports the one-off payments that the government made in the last couple of Budgets – making sure to add that she would have gone even further on them – but that she “cannot understand” why it proceeded with fuel tax increases.
Martin and Harris do some head shaking as McDonald criticises Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil’s performance and plans. In response, Martin says that business would be “crucified” under Sinn Féin. Harris cites the trade risks posed by Donald Trump’s presidency in the US – insisting that his party would spend less than either of the other two, calling Sinn Féin’s spending “reckless and irresponsible”.
McDonald says to Martin that his party “brought the crash”.
Harris jumps in: “And we brought people out of it.”
McDonald takes aim at Harris and Martin, saying they should feel “ashamed” over stories from members of the public about struggles to receive the help and healthcare they need. Martin and Harris are both eager to try to dispel that criticism.
Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald defends a point in her party’s manifesto to commission a review of RTÉ’s objectivity. In response, Fianna Fáil’s Micheál Martin – after almost interjecting while McDonald was speaking, but then holding back – says he finds that proposal concerning.
Here’s what the set-up looks like tonight:
The first question is to Simon Harris and it’s about that video from Kanturk on his interaction with a carer and whether Fine Gael communicated with RTÉ in the aftermath about coverage of the matter.
Harris insists that the party’s communication was to offer a statement about its position on care and disabilities.
He says he has ‘no knowledge’ of any request being made not to air the clip.
The three party leaders are stood at podiums quite close to each other. None of the ‘opposite sides of the stage’ stuff you’d see in the likes of the recent US president election debates – they’re practically shoulder to shoulder.
Some photos of the three leaders from their arrivals at RTÉ in the last hour:
As we wait for the debate to start, here’s some new polling figures for the five-seat Kerry constituency from TG4.
Independent Michael Healy Rae fared the best in th TG4/Ipsos B&A poll, receiving 27% of first votes from those surveyed.
His brother Danny Healy-Rae came in fifth on 10%, but Michael is likely to have a significant surplus above the quota that would transfer largely to Danny, securing him a seat too, according to the poll.
Outgoing Minister for Education Norma Foley came second on 14%, followed by Fine Gael candidate Billy O’Shea and Sinn Féin candidate Pa Daly.
A message from our politics editor Christina Finn:
The RTE Press Room is my home for the next couple of hours. This is where all the reporters and photographers watch the live studio debate and file their copy. There’s coffee and tea cakes, so that should keep me going.
Completing the trio, Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has arrived too.
Micheal Martin arrives at RTE studios. pic.twitter.com/6564bV3rhY
— Christina Finn (@christinafinn8) November 26, 2024
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has landed.
Christina asks her what Sinn Féin party members would make of a coalition deal between Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil.
McDonald says the “best” option would be for a government with neither Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil – but leaves the door open for finding common ground with Fianna Fáil.
“We’ll see what frame of mind Michéal is in [at the debate],” she says, with a hint of a smile.
Is there any common ground between SF and FF? pic.twitter.com/Scg0kVKXnL
— Christina Finn (@christinafinn8) November 26, 2024
“I’m really conscious that while it’s only really hours to go until polling stations open across this country, there are many voters who remain undecided,” says Harris on his way in to the debate.
Simon Harris says many people are undecided on who they will vote for in this election. pic.twitter.com/VChxUKMAOp
— Christina Finn (@christinafinn8) November 26, 2024
Taoiseach Simon Harris is the first to arrive.
Speaking to reporters on his way in, he’s asked whether his team had communicated to RTÉ that the carer Charlotte Fallon (who he was filmed being dismissive of) was a Sinn Féin member in an effort to stop the video from being shared.
He says: “I don’t believe so.”
You can also follow our politics editor Christina Finn, reporting live from RTÉ.
Party leaders should be arriving shortly. pic.twitter.com/RFas9hTLeu
— Christina Finn (@christinafinn8) November 26, 2024
Ahead of tonight’s debate, Miriam O’Callaghan said it is sure to be “intense for everyone involved” and a “chance for viewers to see all three leaders up close and personal”.
Co-host Sarah McInerney noted that the debate takes place a mere three days before polling day on Friday and that it’ll “be the first and only debate between the three people contesting for the office of Taoiseach”.
McInerney said that “people want to know who is going to fix the housing crisis, who can address the cost of living in Ireland and who will tackle hospital waiting lists”.
Will the debate shed light on those questions?
The leaders taking part in the debate tonight are Fine Gael’s Simon Harris, Fianna Fáil’s Micheál Martin, and Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald.
The three of them were in the RTÉ studios for a debate last week too but the stage was a fair bit busier that time, with ten party leaders participating – here’s a reminder of how that went down.
Good evening! Lauren Boland here. I’ll be liveblogging the final leaders’ debate of this election campaign. Whether you’re planning to watch it live on the television, just looking to get updates on the highlights, or catching up after the debate, we’ll have everything you need to know here on The Journal.
It’s just under two hours until the debate kicks off on RTÉ One during Primetime. Our politics editor Christina Finn is stationed in Donnybrook waiting for the three party leaders to arrive.
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