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PAT KENNY HAS said that he is “used to Peter Casey” as he prepares to host another television debate with the European election candidate.
Kenny hosted the Virgin Media One debate in October last year when Casey, then a presidential candidate, doubled down controversial comments he made about Travellers and their ethnicity.
Ahead of that debate, the most recent poll had put support for Casey at 2%. In the presidential election a week later Casey won 23% of the vote and the media were criticised in some quarters for amplifying Casey’s message.
Speaking today as Virgin Media One announced its European elections debate schedule, Kenny said he was opposed to denying people space to speak.
“I’m always in favour of space for voices but the voices have to be challenged, that’s the key. If you start to in some ways try to censor people or deny people the right to say things, they will say it in some other forum or some other way,” he said.
Kenny made the comparison with the Section 31 broadcast ban which prevented Sinn Féin voices being on RTÉ during the Troubles. The veteran broadcaster said this approach has proven to be unsuccessful.
There were always ways in which that view would be articulated on air. People who were not in Provos, who were not in Sinn Féin but agreed with all of those views and they would espouse them on air. So you’d much prefer to talk to the relevant person rather than the person who’s there by proxy.
In any event, Kenny says he doesn’t feel Casey’s performance in the presidential election was all down to his criticism of Travellers.
If you didn’t want Michael D Higgins you were left with the rest and I think a lot of the vote that went to Peter was: ‘I don’t really want to give Michael D Higgins another seven years’.
“The other candidates in various ways evaporated. Gavin didn’t seem to know why he was there at the end of the day, Liadh Ní Ríada made a few strategic gaps along the way and Peter was, if you like, the last man standing who was making any kind of noise.”
Virgin Media One is hosting debates across Pat Kenny’s Big Debate series and the nightly Tonight Show with Ivan Yates and Matt Cooper.
The Tonight Show European Election Specials begin tonight with the Midlands North West constituency followed by Ireland South tomorrow and Dublin on Thursday.
Pat Kenny’s Big Debate is on next Wednesday, 15 May.
The Yates and Cooper show is likely to be a more robust affair with Yates saying today that audiences prefer when there’s some “chaos” in the studio.
We find that when there’s a knock-down, drag out fight amongst the panelists it rates much batter. So we might be trying to engineer as much mayhem and bloodshed as possible, political bloodshed.
The Tonight Show debates will feature five panelists with the main parties staying on after the commercial break and some other candidates swapping in to give them an opportunity to make their case.
Kenny’s show will have a primary lineup of five candidates facing questions but other “interested parties” will be in the audience.
The lineup of both shows is being coordinated so there is no overlap of candidates.
“Our plan is to have five key speakers but also there’ll be interested parties in the audience, there’ll be dissonant voices as well as voices that will agree with the candidates. So you’re as likely to meet anyone from Jason Byrne to Peter Casey in the line up,” Kenny says.
RTÉ has said it is ensuring it adheres to the broadcasting authority’s election rules by listing all candidates in a particular constituency whenever one is mentioned.
Virgin Media One is not adhering to this practice and Kenny says the station views balance as being achieved across an entire campaign rather than an individual show.
RTÉ’s debate schedule sees it hosting three major television debates on the European elections running for three consecutive nights from Sunday 19 May.
The RTÉ debates will be presented by Miriam O’Callaghan, Claire Byrne and David McCullagh.
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back from the summer holidays in autumn. you get the impression the country would work just as well without them.
@Dáithí Ó Raghallaigh: He was too busy virtue signalling his support for the Muslim Brotherhood.
@Dáithí Ó Raghallaigh: Nonsense. He was voicing his support for the release of a political prisoner whose rights had been violated by a military dictatorship.
@Dáithí Ó Raghallaigh: An activist arrested in the context of a violent riot in support of a fascist organisation, I presume you mean
@Deano Cracow: wrongfully arrested and imprisoned as it turns out.
@Dáithí Ó Raghallaigh: The fascism on display during that time came from the Sisi regime who murdered over 800 civilians on a solitary day. Whatever the faults of Morsi’s democratically elected government and there were plenty, nothing they did ever compared to that in its depravity.
Believe what you like, it won’t change the fact that Ibrahim is coming home.
Knowing how angry that makes you and several others provides me with a lot of satisfaction.
@Dáithí Ó Raghallaigh: How was he wrongfully arrested ? He wasn’t picked up at the hotel swimming pool .
@Dáithí Ó Raghallaigh: Sorry , that was meant for @David .
Monty comes back when the Dáil does, interesting.
Someone needs to point out to Martin his party FF are supporting the government which is incapable of addressing the homeless crises. Not back a day and all we are hearing is meanless waffle…..
@Kerry Blake: Sssshhh ! You’re exposing the illusion of an opposition party .
Good cop bad cop politics in action , the population are the suspects they’re working over .
FFS Leo!
Build more friken social housing and stop blaming, landlords, developers, vulture funds and anyone with an empty house.
Spend less time campaigning for members of the Muslim Brotherhood.
It’s Ok,everything is fine, Leo “acknowledges”.
@Arnold Lane: i agree everything is fine and it’s good to see him back ,on the down side we will have to listen and watch those grandstanding lefties ,on all the news bulletins with their “shame on you” moan
Homeless people are a “stain” on our society reveals his true feelings. How humane of Leo to say so.
@siobhan pat mulcahy: except that wasn’t what he actually said.
A stain on FG more like
@Hurt Stoogie: translated from political jargon it is what he says
Salary ‘top ups’ totalling €2.2 Million for TD’s and Senators – welcome back after your break…..
Well for some.
It’s all “Mea Culpa’s “from the Taoiseach,all humble and dripping sincerity,as he ignores all and sundry except his core voters.
He’s good at it though ,a sterling performance in our National Theatre with superb supporting roles from”Howlin “and the other jobbing cast,
No, it’s a stain on your profession
Another stain to add to the list of things to be taken to the cleaners .
(1)Tax payers .
(2)The sick .
(3)The elderly .
(4)The homeless .
Why is a data centre any more strategic than anything else? It’s not as if the country will grind to a halt without it.
Rather than making exceptions for a company that has Leo’s ear perhaps looking at why the planning process is so slow would be better.
Got the headline wrong. It should read:
As it happened: As homeless people return, Taoiseach says dail’s ‘a stain on our society’
Wont be long till the mid term break, next week is it?- then a weak and half and its Christmas already!
Hypocrisy. Simple as that.
Christmas has started early in Leinster house
Haha. Martin blaming FG for the housing crisis. These farsical performances in the dail are just for the media, just for show, just to fool the public into voting for them in the next election.
Homelessness is a stain on successive governments, the banks, the legal system and regulatory policy.
Glad you enjoyed your break Leo swanning around USA and Canada with your boyfriend on an extended holiday while the homeless and housing crisis gets worse and worse, cut from the same cloth as Kenny and the rest of the parasites before him.
The Dail holidays are also a stain on our society as well, the amount of time they get off is crazy…
As homelessness rises and the impacts more and more visible , FG supposedly rises in the Polls.
Homelessness a stain on our society. Didnt know he or any of FG ministers cared. I prefer if he said its a stain on our political system which has failed our society.
FF Destroyed our country
FG Destroyed our society
@JJ Sharkey: Don’t forget those other parasites Labour………
@JJ Sharkey: True
Dáil reform urgently needed. The Summer break should be for August only. Coming back in late September is a joke.
The dail is a stain on our society with a complete indifference to actually providing services and caring for our society.
What colour socks did he have on
Charletan.
have your say