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LAST UPDATE | 23 Oct 2018
IN 72 HOURS time, the voting will be all over in the presidential election.
It means that time is running out for the candidates to make their case and tonight’s RTÉ Prime Time debate was the best chance they’re going to get to influence the outcome.
All six took part and this is how it went down.
Evening all, Rónán Duffy here. I’ll be liveblogging tonight’s debate and I’m looking forward to a bit of humdinger.
To be frank, it has to be for any of the incumbent’s five rivals to have a chance in this thing.
Michael D Higgins has a huge lead in the polls, so large that any result other than a Higgins win would be an upset of unprecedented proportions.
But as we know in this country, last-minute debate surprises do happen and the five challengers will be hoping for a game-changer tonight.
Basically, if they’ve any last-minute rabbits to pull out of hats. Tonight is the night to do it.
We’re just over 30 minutes from the start of the debate (9.45pm) and the candidates are already at RTÉ.
In fact, they’ve left the safety of the Montrose dressing rooms to take the positions in the studio.
A bit early you’d think but enough time to get used to where they, eh, stand.
The two female candidates are occupying the furthest left positions while the three Dragons are on the right.
Higgins looks happy enough to be between them.
RTÉ’s David McCullagh is the man asking the questions and presumably breaking up any unsportsmanlike conduct from the candidates tonight.
He’s broken out the celestial bling for the evening.
But if shouty debates aren’t your thing, we’ve also got you covered this evening. In podcast form.
TheJournal.ie’s Sinead O’Carroll sat down with each of the six hopefuls during the course of the campaign to get a sense of who they are and what they want to achieve as president.
The in-depth interviews threw up some interesting tidbits and some tetchy moments but you can listen to them all at your leisure.
Click here to listen to all six on Soundcloud
For the record, and for those of you who have decided to ignore the race until this final week, the six candidates are: President Michael D Higgins, Senator Joan Freeman, Liadh Ní Riada MEP, Gavin Duffy, Sean Gallagher and Peter Casey.
Those final three were all Dragons on the RTÉ version of Dragons Den.
There have been two other main TV debates in the race so far. The first hosted by Claire Byrne on RTÉ One and the second hosted by Pat Kenny on Virgin Media One.
Higgins and Gallagher both didn’t show up for the first debate and were brutally criticised by remaining candidates for not doing so.
In the second debate, Casey defended his comments about Travellers after they were labelled as racist and went on the attack over Higgins’ spending in the Áras.
Sinn Féin’s Ní Riada also said she would wear a poppy if elected president, something which some in her own party have expressed reservations over.
What’s going to be interesting to see tonight is exactly how much Higgins’ challengers go after him directly.
They all say they’re in the race to win it and if that’s true they’re going to need to take a bite out of the huge lead he has.
In addition, it will also be interesting to see if Higgins does swing back at his opponents.
In his interview on TheJournal.ie’s The Candidate podcast, Higgins criticised the focus on presidential spending and noted that he’s declined to ask those who have been criticising his spending who they’d disinvite from the Áras.
Higgins probably knows he doesn’t need to get into a shouting match with his opponents, but will he be able to resist throwing the odd barb himself?
McCullagh goes to Higgins first.
He’s asking about the controversy over the use of the government jet to go to Belfast.
Higgins said there is “always logistical and security” reasons why decisions are taken but the decision to fly was not his.
He says he would have preferred to travel by car.
Gallagher describes it as “a pattern to hide behind security concerns”.
He mentions homelessness and other issues, says to Higgins that he “knows in his heart” that flying to Belfast was the wrong decision.
Peter Casey looks to Higgins.
Calls him “a liar” for saying he would serve one term and continuing.
McCullagh says he won’t let people call each other liars.
Casey changes his tack, saying Higgins has been “economical with the truth”.
Higgins is asked by McCullagh if he’s “happy” to have flown in the government jet “as a lifelong socialist”.
Higgins says he is “not happy with any extravagance”.
He is asked directly how many times has he used the government jet this year.
Higgins doesn’t answer for a few seconds before saying he has used it twice.
We’re onto Casey’s comments on Travellers.
McCullagh puts it to him that surely they fit the bill of racism.
Casey quotes the Proclamation, as he has done several times, saying he “cherishes all of the children equally”. Adds that he doesn’t think Travellers deserve “special” status.
“I absolutely rejected the concept that I am racist,” he says.
Casey denies that his comments on Travellers were “an attack”.
Says he would describe them as “an observation”.
Duffy says that Travellers have been recognised as a separate ethnicity by the Dáil and that the president should not be contradicting the Dáil.
“Politicians make mistakes,” Casey responds.
Casey says that Travellers get numerous benefits because of their ethnicity, including “houses and fields”.
Liadh Ní Riada says that he can’t say this as it is not the case.
Ní Riada is now being asked about comments she made two years ago when she expressed a reluctance to give her daughter the HPV vaccine.
The candidate says that the comments were made because she felt she had “a lack of information” about the vaccine. She says she was never opposed to the HPV vaccine and is not now.
She says that the HSE has now “stepped up to provide the scientific information we need” about the vaccine.
Repeats that she was “naive” to make the comments she did.
Gallagher is asked about why he did not express his views on the various referendums and social issues since he came as a runner up in the presidential election in 2011.
He responds by bringing up Tweetgate, says that RTÉ has “learnt lessons” by what happened and argues that he “did not have a mandate” to get involved in political issues since 2011.
There’s a bit of as argument between fellow Dragons Gavin Duffy and Sean Gallagher.
Duffy said that Gallagher has been claiming to be promoting social entrepreneurship when in fact he is “a commercial landlord”.
Gallagher acknowledges that he “provides space” for businesses and says that people from the private sector should not be precluded from running.
Freeman gets involved as well, she says that Gallagher is not “giving away space for free”.
Gallagher mentions Michael D Higgins “not turning up” for the first debate and says that he was “sitting at home drinking coffee”.
Higgins says that he was not drinking coffee, instead saying he had responsibilities as president.
It’s the first time Higgins had spoken in some time.
Higgins goes on to defend his media schedule during the campaign. He says that he has been dealing with “innuendo” during the campaign and is unhappy with it.
Gallagher asks him to turn up to the final debate tomorrow on Virgin Media One.
He declines.
Duffy denies his business is spin. Says public relations is not listed on his website.
Casey is now bringing up Tweetgate. Says that Gallagher effectively “sued the Irish taxpayer” and claims that “RTÉ did nothing wrong”.
Gallagher says they shouldn’t be having a rerun of the 2011 campaign. A couple nod in agreement.
We’re now going to a break.
McCullagh looks like he could do with one.
We’re halfway through and the consensus online seems to be that the debate is a pretty low energy affair and is drifting all over the place.
It’s hard to disagree with that conclusion.
I don’t think that anyone will be majorly pleased with it, they’ve all had better performances.
All this of course is probably good news for Higgins.
We’re back now and McCullagh is giving Freeman a chance to outline her policies.
Freeman is the founder of mental health charity and speaks about her experience.
She claims that others in the campaign are “jumping on the coattails of mental health”, adding, “but I’m the expert”.
Freeman goes for a big line:
There’s land outside Dublin. It’s called the rest of Ireland.
You can draw your own conclusions.
Duffy is speaking about his plans for an International Youth Corp where Irish youngsters can travel abroad to represent the country.
“I can assure you, the financing on this won’t be a problem,” he says.
Duffy is also speaking about obesity problems and labels himself as someone who has “yo-yoed” in weight.
Duffy is being asked for details on his Ireland International Youth Corp.
“A lot of young people chop and change college courses,” he says, adding that the corp will give them an opportunity.
Casey promises to be one of the “most interesting and exciting” presidents if he’s elected.
He also says that he will appoint his wife to the Council of State.
Higgins is still on the podium. But he’s not saying much.
He’s now being asked about his previous seven years.
He says that he has not been “responding to change” but has been involved in initiating it.
“A president can initiate a discussion on why a deeply unequal society can repeat itself,” Higgins says.
Ní Riada is now being asked about her comments on saying she would challenge the government while in office. McCullagh asks “is that wise?”.
Ní Riada says that addressing the Oireachtas is an important right the president has.
Higgins cuts across her (notably one of the first times he’s done so) and says he addressed the European Commission on the issue of austerity.
The pair have a little argument as gaeilge. They are the only two fluent Irish speakers in the race.
Freeman wants to get involved.
She looks at the three Dragons and says she “doesn’t quite know” what they have promised to do to address issues like addiction and homelessness.
Gallagher, who has spoken about the problems with his sight, says that if he’s elected Ireland “will become a role model” in how it treats disability.
Casey is asked about his personal taxes.
He says that he has a US Green Card and because of that has to pay a percentage of his worldwide taxes in the US. He says it’s 46% but that he’s attempting to change that to pay personal taxes here.
He says his Irish companies pay taxes here.
Gallagher says he pays taxes here but won’t go into details about how much.
Duffy says he’s “never had an offshore account” and that he has a “single business”.
He says that his taxes are “tight”, unlike the other Dragons.
Gallagher takes issue with this but Duffy clarified that he meant that he has a single business.
Ní Riada says that she pays €40,000 in tax and gets €60,000 in take home pay from her wage as an MEP.
McCullagh says that she told Hot Press that she took home “the average industrial wage”.
Ní Riada says that she gets a “good wage” but that it’s an “average wage”.
She describes the difference as “semantics”.
Ní Riada did not answer that question very well, she’s struggled on it before as well.
Freeman is asked about the funding of her campaign and whether it was a misjudgement to take a loan from an old friend whose company was accused of running a ponzi scheme.
She says that asking the question was a misjudgement as it was a personal loan, not a loan from his company.
Says to McCullagh that if she got a loan from him it would not be a loan from RTÉ.
Higgins is now being asked about expenses.
McCullagh asks why further details can be released after the election but not now.
Higgins says that any change that’s made must be “done properly” and that any change would affected presidents that come thereafter.
Gallagher says that “the shock and disgrace” of the election has been the unvouched €317,000 fund that’s available to the Áras each year.
Casey says he will release all his campaign funding tomorrow.
Freeman says that it’s “very strange” that all three Dragons have been put standing beside each other in the debate and that they “seem like best friends tonight”.
McCullagh says that the order the candidates were put in was arranged after lots were drawn.
The candidates are being asked under what circumstances they would refuse to dissolve the Dáil.
Higgins says the president would have the ability to take time to make the decision.
We’ve run over time.
In fact, the RTÉ Player has given up on in the debate.
The candidates were given some quickfire questions to finish the debate.
Ní Riada is asked what’s the biggest mistake she’s made in her life, jokes that it was “wearing high shoes to this debate”.
Casey is asked what traits he dislikes about himself.
“Gosh there’s quite a few,” he says, before settling on working too hard.
A classic interview answer to finish tonight’s proceedings.
Well that’s it from me tonight, thanks for joining us on the liveblog.
If you’d like to rate how the candidates did, we’ve a new sporty Player Ratings feature that lets you judge each candidate’s performance. Be nice/honest.
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I’m afraid to give my opinion incase they start taxing my comments…
Your comment is taxing, Paperboy2:-)
Per keystroke, so keep it short.
How droll
Water tax !!!!
The rest is bull shit.
Paperboy
They do need to pay their trolls so dont be surprised if they tax your comments.
Worst country in the world to work!!!
Budget day is going to be a day of election bribery, everyone dont get fooled by this, remember how disgracefully our government have treated us all in past ! Especially dont forget we are still fighting to abolish the new water tax, a tax that we are all paying for already through general taxation !
I just know I’m not going to get any work done today. I’m going to spend my time reading all the comments on thejournal.ie
Noonan and Kenny or Nooenny are too old to worrie about consequences its the historical aspect, always remember for the wrong reasons but remember all the same. Their mark on the world when their gone…let’s hope they go soon……
Happy with the budget overall very pro business which is great. What suspect is that it’s very similar to the give away budgets of FF. DL and SF must be disappointed with the welfare increases which will play into Labours hands and increase their vote.
After all that I’m not even up €30 per month. And my water charges will cost me more than that, so still, nett result is I have even less than last year.
So, yes..you’re buying!
Kenny has bought out journal and set up a team of red tumbing dopes. Are you frightened of social networking Enda. Will you just ends it. Red tumb me to confirm.
I hope the German parliament has approved this budget. We wouldn’t want to be upsetting our masters.
If Sinn Fein had their way the germans certainly would have been our masters
http://www.historyireland.com/20th-century-contemporary-history/new-evidence-on-iranazi-links/
That’s desperate Tom, even for a blueshirt.
I’m not any coloured shirt, I find the continual silly irrelevant comments irritating. Is my comment a stupid irrelevant comment….yes, but it’s in keeping with the comment I was replying to.
Do I support the Government ? in some things yes & in others no. But no matter who is in power I’m never going agree with all their policy but that’s what democracy is, a compromise. I do detest opposition parties that knock for the sake of knocking.
Labour were every bit as bad during the last governments term as Sinn Fein are this term.
I never in my life voted Labour but I intend giving Ged Nash a vote next time.
Simply because although it hurted their support base they were mature enough to make the tough choices.
Probably change again after that, The only party I will never vote for are FF, but I am a floating voter
You lost when you starting comparing the current labour party to the shinners. No one will ever be compared to the lying treacherous animals. You are voting for Ged Nash, you deserve everything you get. Oh and before you call me a shinner, i was a card carrying member of labour from 1997 to 2012
Well there you go thetruth, I never give them a vote 1997-2012, however they are having to live a little more in reality these days, but that grating/condescending voice of Burton is hard to listen to.
Why is The Journal taking the piss out of the protester? He’s perfectly intitled to do that.. Power to him I say!
The only thing I want to hear today from noonan is how he plans to dissolve irish water and clean up the mess fg has made everything else is irrelevant
If the finance minister knows what’s good for him he would abolish the USC, HOUSE HOLD TAX AND THE WATER CHARGES THAT WAY, The people of Ireland wouldn’t feel the pinch as much. And maybe we would spend again. Who knows.
And then we would be broke again, extremely smart thinking
Nothing of significance there to increase take home pay. I’ll be cutting my own spending to counter the continued austerity/theft.
it’s going to do next to nothing for ordinary people. the rich will get a tax break we’ll get feck all
That degree in Human Rights not raking in the millions you thought it would?
never wanted to be rich mo chara
Who you calling mo!
mo as in my
I shall name you Sherlock.
Mo Chara, is he not the British athlete?
Is it too soon to change the hash tag “As it happens” to “Sh*t happens”?
Here is everything you’re going to see today:
1. The govt acting like they’re doing you a favor giving you tax cuts hoping you won’t notice that with all the taxes they’ve newly introduced and charges they’ve hiked you’re actually at a major MAJOR NET LOSS.
2. FF are going to pretend that the govt is somehow doing something other than following the policies they started in office, they will be trying to square an impossible circle of saying that those policies are the reason for recovery but are also terrible bold policies that hurt the needy that they’d never have done.
3. The fragmented left, will come into the dail looking disheveled and shabby and make bellicose over the top speeches about how they’d have free chocolate ice cream and Swedish hookers for all and would manage to do this without anyone other than cartoon rich people with monocles paying taxes. The highlight of this will be two upper middle class brats who came from privilege acting as crusaders for the working class.
4. SF will try to square their own circle of trying to make the press see how mainstream and moderate they are while trying to send the exact opposite message to their constituents.
5. Labour ministers will stand up and try to make a highly regressive conservative reactionary agenda sound like something Hugo Chavez came up with, while at the same time leaking to the press that FG wanted 20euro a week dole and would have got it but for the valiant red crusaders in Labour standing up for the little guy
6. The tiny number of people in the house actually qualified in economics will get very little attention and will continue to say ”hey that’s another iceberg were heading for there…see it?” as smug ministers laugh thinking were in a recovery.
I’m really looking forward to this budget. Good things are beginning to happen again. Workers will be rewarded for their hard work/sacrafices over the last few years.
I agree but bear in mind that some people will never be happy. :)
True..if we get any reprieves it will be ‘THEY’RE BUYING THE ELECTION’ and if they take anything else it’ll be ‘CAN’T PAY WON’T PAY’.
Gets tiring after a while…
Abolish the USC as promised, and I will dance a jig with delight!
Those pizza suits are another fine example of the job bridge scheme in action.
I can just imagine the job description
“The Intern will gain valuable experience in wearing an outfit resembling a takeaway product, dealing with the public and being chased by hungry stoners”
Camel Lights are still €8.60 that means they’ll go up to 9 quid? might hafta start buying rolling tobacco to mix with my joints . would like to just smoke blunts but at €500 an ounce I simply can’t afford it . of coarse tens of millions of euro are being lost to the exchequer due to cannabis being illegal
400 euro thought I just don’t have that disposable income but yeah it would be a wise investment
5 euro Increase in child benefit ? Well it’s going to take more than five euro to buy my vote at the next election .
Post the fiver back if you don’t want it, Catherine, and maybe tone down the histrionics, will ya?
Histrionics ? Led a very sheltered life have you ? Must have if you think that comment constitutes histrionics lol
Absolutely sick of all the government bashing. We all played a part in this economic mess. The government has brought us back from the brink. Have some respect and educate yourselves.
FG fool, this will be you last stand with general Enda Custard Kenny leading the charge.
I’ll tell you what shouldn’t exist … Ministers !! Especially out of touch ones with scary smiles and big fat salaries and pensions . ( which basically covers the lot of them )
Yeah the accountants and economists should be the ones running the country.
The proposed/suspected cut in the private pension levy will have no effect on workers pockets – scheme providers will just tell you it will reduce the burden/pressure on the scheme. So nothing really there for workers in that respect.
An increase in child benefits – FFS, could we not scrap this social welfare payment an introduce a proper children’s tax credit and/or at least try to means test it. Sick of contributing to the costs of bringing up other people’s children.
Top tax rate to be cut – middle to low income earners are not really going to benefit as much as high earners.
I have no kids and don’t earn enough to be effected by the 1% top rate cut. I’m in the verge of insolvency, if the USC bands aren’t widened far enough to give me 10-20euro at least a week extra take home I’m screwed. But sure, I’m not in the select demographics (lab for the social welfare and FG for the top layers) so I don’t matter.
Sorry, bit of a rant. Carry on
Buying votes?
They were elected on the campaign of lies we were subject to at the time. They then screwed us over at every turn. A reversal is the least they should do.
But as with every “vote buying budget” for every five euro joe soap benefits, higher earners benefit by twenty.
“for every five euro joe soap benefits, higher earners benefit by twenty.” – That is how percentages usually work, yes.
sure because the reason the AAA wants to keep giving us Dubliners clean water from our taps for free is not electioneering, no sirree
That’s because the higher earners make 40 euro, pay 25 to the government in tax, who then give 5 to joe soap.
What’s not to like if you are a socialist?
I understand percentage perfectly.
Most people dont earn enough to reach a higher tax bracket so they are gettng no benefit from a reduction in that.
Everyone would get the benefit of a lowering of the lower tax bracket. Both higher and lower earners.
Giovanni Giusti, Have a look at the link below.
Please stop making a fool of yourself by saying Irish people have free water.
Budget budget mo mudget bana nana fo fudget
Me my mo mudget
BUDGET!
A bloody Nespresso store….when will we learn.
Aspirational, rubbish, snob coffee. You get better and cheaper from a good bag of ground coffee in a plunger.
But…. you have to wait a few minutes for it to be ready….. AHHHHH
You will have. Heard of the Boston tea party ? Well in protest ye should have the Dublin Nespresso party and feck all the Nespresso in to the Liffey . In protest against notions, the budget , taxes and fog .
How about a “Knob Tax” on anyone who brags about how well off they are on The Journal?
That scam that is the Universal Social Club sandwich charge should of been wiped out years ago!!
Protesters already outside the Dail, giving out about the budget and the EU omg.
Oh one of them is in the article already, didnt see that, lol I’m like a journalist.
The 11% USC on high earning self employed is disgusting. Of course they wouldn’t levy it on the high earners in the public sector.
They should give us back €30 euro that they already took from us for child benefit. €5 is nothing to what they took from us (€30).give us back the amount you took from the child benefit.
The sense of entitlement is strong in this one. Just be grateful you get any payment at all for them. There are those of us who don’t have kids, that don’t have the luxury of state payments every month and have had a lot more than €30 taken from us.
Here’s another one. Typical moaner. Moan when there’s tax hikes. Moan when you get a little back. When deciding if you could afford to have children did you honestly take into account the monthly child benefit?
Should be made into a tax credit instead encourage more back to work
For the record for most the 30 euro was taken away with a hell of a lot more as no one just has kids in isolation. Most have had cuts or charges to deal with alongside child benefit cuts . That is unless you are super rich . For the record we are very much entitled to moan . Especially about our elected representatives . Child benefit has been factored into the household income and it is missed when cuts are made . its not our fault other havent produced children. Also I paid taxes for 30 years paying taxes that no doubt covered a lot of the child benefit paid for a lot iof the people on here who havent had kids themselves . They were kids themselves once. Also child benefit should not be a tax credit as not everyone can work outside the home. Some of us ( carers) work very hard for our benefits and can’t take outside work as much as we would like to.
One of the parents should be working Tax credit can go to them. No need to be married to transfer it I personally think it would be more beneficial as a tax credit those who really need it can claim it would make doing something like means tested much easier etc as well. Also means that it can’t be “taken out of country” so to speak foreign parents would have to be working in Ireland to claim it.
“We can go and face people on the doors now,” one Labour senator says
Just don’t come to my door liars
The double payment should be an illegal in EU. Also making you pay for something you are not using. First you have to pay the annual charges (even if your house is empty an you use 0 liters of water) and then you pay 4.66 per m3 (1000 liters) what is over the yearly allowance.
http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/environment/water_services/water_charges.html tells us for single person they yearly charge is 176 euro and for this they get 30000 liters “for free”.
How can they claim it is free??? You pay 176 euros for 30 m3 of water, making the m3 price 5,87 euros per cubic meter (and even more if you don’t use up your 30000 liters in a year)
Water charges
http://www.citizensinformation.ie
Ha ha ha Joan thinks by giving people €5 extra on childs allowance they can go onto the doorsteps with confidence…….LABOUR party are going the way of the greens….lying to the people…..screwing us with all your taxes……I hope you come to my door in person…
Noonan has a frog in his throat and a German in his ear
Also if you have aspirations of joining An Garda Siochana the Communications Clinic can offer you the skills to ace the test. And it will only cost you €200.
So all comments about Terry Prone / Communications Clinic / Irish Times Apology / Karagh Fox / Govt advisory payments to Savage/ Prone are acceptable on this blog?
Very good speech by Mary Lou McDonald. I’m not a member of Sinn Fein, never even voted for them (mainly because of their IRA connections) but she made some very very good clear points. It was totally unnecessary for Sean Barrett to interrupt her for simply looking at Enda Kenny, surely anyone speaking about the budget today would do that at least every now and then. Mary-Lou was right to comment this was biased on his part. And then for him to say: withdraw the remark or leave?? Would have loved to hear the rest of her speech. Sean Barrett’s should resign and be replaced with a truely impartial Ceann Comhairle!
Here’s my budget predictions… Bullsh!t, bullsh!t, bullsh!t, PR equipped statements followed down the road by u turns on some unpopular decisions
That’s not accurate, you’ve misread how it all works.
There is no standing charge, and a free allowance for a household of 30 kL. If you use less than this, you pay nothing.
The €176 figure is an assessed charge for people with no meters, and is based in an average consumption of 66 kL. If you have a meter you pay €4.88 per kL over 30kL used.
In the event of your unoccupied house with 0L usage, there’ll be no charges.
Hope this helps.
The water charges “double taxation” argument kinda goes out the window now with these tax cuts…
Will someone please pass Michael Noonan a spit bucket… I think he’s about to hock over Brendan Howling..
PRIVATE SECTOR Pension Levy is gone!
Happy Days!
He should have gone with the red tie, that’s my favourite colour.
Poor nurses….any hint of a raise? :(
Public pension levy remaining the same??
‘Lads, lets bribe the elderly vote with €100 for water charges, that’ll keep us popular’
have your say