WHILE THE LEADERS of two of the biggest political parties engaged in a live debate yesterday, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny instead attended a meeting in Carrick on Shannon in Leitrim.

At the meeting, where he was heckled for ten minutes by a man called Bobby in relation to unemployment levels, who said he didn’t believe in politicians, Kenny insisted he would “lead from the front” if elected Taosieach.

He appeared to defend his decison to snub the TV3 debate when he said “politics is always about interaction with people”.

He added: “As far as I’m aware, this is the first political meeting that has been streamed live on the internet”, and said he wanted the people of Carrick on Shannon – and the world – to know that they were looking at a politician who would lift Ireland out of its problems.

He then spoke of Fine Gael’s five point plan to “get Ireland working” - touching on matters like taxation, public services, jobs, health, the political system and the economy.

When dealing with the issue of health care, Kenny praised the current Netherlands’ model – and struck out at critics of his party’s desire to emulate the Dutch health system, saying that it had “nothing to do with privatisation”.

Kenny said Fine Gael would ban corporate donations and ensure that no minister would receive a pension until they reached the national retirement age.

He spoke of the young people who had left the country – the people that he hoped to represent by leaving an empty chair at last night’s leaders’ debate – saying that, while statistics showed the level of emigration, nothing could display emotion “like the human tear”. In an apparent swipe at Labour, Kenny insisted “this country is not banjaxed”, and promised that Fine Gael would create more jobs in Ireland.

Speaking during the Q&A session after the meeting, a man in the audience – who said that he had lost a son to suicide – thanked Kenny for his personal support following his son’s death and for his decision not to attend the TV3 debate.

Kenny replied by saying that the “unspeakable tragedy of suicide” was something that was “very close to [his] heart”.