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WITH JUST OVER a week to go to the presidential election, all six candidates squared off for the first time under the TV lights this evening.
Michael D Higgins and Sean Gallagher – both of whom sat out Monday’s RTÉ debate – joined Peter Casey, Gavin Duffy, Joan Freeman and Liadh Ní Riada in the Virgin Media One studios at Ballymount for a debate helmed by Pat Kenny.
With the incumbent so far ahead in the polls, one of the challengers needs to pull off a major shock in the next nine days to turn the campaign into something resembling a close-run contest.
Did any of them surprise you tonight? Who handled the pressure best?
You can rate the candidates out of ten below. Just click ‘rate now’ to compare your take with readers’ average rating.
Casey has my vote
@Nicholas Lynch: he’s hilarious I’ll give hime that much, not sure if I would vote him in but I’d definitely go for a pint with the man!
@Nicholas Lynch: He was poorly prepared and came across nervous and scattered. Is that what you look for in a president?
@Nicholas Lynch: Me too. He impressed with no bullshit.
While we all sat to our christmas dinner with our families our President Michael D signed the 2013 WATER SERVICES ACT into law on CHRISTMAS DAY, this established IRISH WATER, WATER CHARGES AND METERING thats how in tune he was with the electorate then and he is still the same now totally out of touch, he does not deserve a second term and he will not be getting my vote.
@Elizabeth Hourihane: It is NOT the Presidents job to go against a decision of the democratically elected Dail – however distasteful that is – except in extreme circumstances, like going to war or something of that magnitude. The water services act was a stupid idea, but it was not an extreme circumstance
@Elizabeth Hourihane: Well said Elizabeth now expect the establishment bots FFGL to reply but but but he had no choice but to sign it when he could have been a man of principle and refused to sign this water scam / bondholder tax into law and refer it to a higher court, especially after hundreds of thousands of people marched the streets of Ireland. Remember he also signed the eviction bill as well.
@Elizabeth Hourihane: so fuking what
@Elizabeth Hourihane: A president can only refuse to sign a law once .it then goes to the council of state ..they look at it .then send it back to the president where then he or she decides whether to send it to the supreme court.
@Elizabeth Hourihane: You do know there was no way of him not signing the bill legally and that under the constitution he could not refuse.
@Stephen Grehan: Read the constitution and then comment as all you are doing is shoeing you lack of understanding of it.
@Gary Kearney: that’s the problem, a lot of people don’t understand the role of the president, it’s NOT a political role, a president can’t change anything really, only government can, though listening to the candidates you’d think otherwise and lots of people don’t get that.
@Elizabeth Hourihane: He can’t refuse to sign a bill once it’s passed through both houses. His choices are sign, refer to council of state (if he believes the law would be repugnant to the Constitution) or resign. Only dictatorships allow the president to over rule the government on a whim.
@Stephen Grehan: Then his only choice would be to resign and the bills would be signed by his successor as they have passed through both houses of Parliament – welcome to democracy.
@Elizabeth Hourihane: it is shameful that people’s education didn’t get to the level where they know what the role of the President is. If he did not sign any bill, he must refer it to the Supreme Court, who would ratify it leaving it closed to any legal challenge…ever..by anybody! Now you can toddle off to your Solicitor and challenge it. He did you a favour, as have I educating you so you don’t make a fool of yourself..again…..
@Dave Harris: Higgins could have refused to sign the bills on a point of protest. Granted they would still have become law, but Higgins would have made a point. Had he done so F.G/F.F. Certainly would not be as vocal about backing him for a second term.
@Donal Desmond: ahhh but the president is supposed to be above partisan politics. If he did what you suggest he would be taking sides. You don’t seem to understand the role of President with that statement
Let common sense prevail in this Republic for once! Vote Casey October 26th
@Joe: not likely
@Ciaran: we have to make it likely then. Peter Casey in the space if a day has become the only politician in Ireland that is standing by his principles no matter how anti PC they are
@Joe: well, mate then you are easily conned.
Casey is taking advice from a guy who ran the trump campaign in Iowa. You pick a group that has no power and that a lot of people have a dislike of ( trump choose the Mexicans) Casey the travellers and attack them – …..
and then just sit back and watch all the idiot populists fall for it. “Ah, look what a great man, he’s speaking the truth ” …… and all that nonsense.
As I said, you’re easily conned.
@Joe: Did you miss you meds
@Joe: That is not something the President can do
@Joe: the presidential role is not a political role, though a lot of candidates will have a political background.
@Joe: He’s not a politician! He’s a business man!
The fact that none of the others would say “President Higgins” suggests a lack of respect for the very role they want.
@Squiddley Diddley: it’s not normal practice to refer to the incumbent as president during presidential debate
@Anthony: Debates with an incumbent here are so rare it’s hard to believe there is such ‘normal practice’ but I guess you must be an expert.
@Squiddley Diddley: likewise your opinion that he should be referred to as president during an election debate Is based on what? Perhaps you’re an expert like myself
@Anthony: Just good manners and respect for the office. What’s your claim based on? (I can’t think of a prior election where the incumbent was campaigning)
@Squiddley Diddley: No . A pompous prat. Answers nothing .
@Squiddley Diddley: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/08/reader-center/why-does-nyt-call-president-mr-trump.html
@Anthony: That’s it? Seriously? Doesn’t even address the ‘debate during election campaign’ issue. It’s about newspaper protocol and it’s about America.
Goodnight.
@Squiddley Diddley:
When speaking as candidate for the election he is not treated as the President of Ireland. This is a total sham of an election campaign six people three from the den. Sorry I don’t buy it
@Squiddley Diddley: I believe Mitt Romney referred to Obama as ‘the President’ during their debates but for anything approaching an Irish precedent you could maybe look at the leaders debate in 2011 where Miriam O’Callaghan didn’t call Enda Kenny “Taoiseach”, just Enda Kenny. On that basis maybe there is some justification after all in not calling Michael D “President O’Higgins” in the debate.
@Squiddley Diddley: Sorry. Excuse the brain fart, of course Kenny wasn’t Taoiseach then. So forget that precedent.
Casey is the man!!! Finally we have a man who will speak on behalf of the working man!!!! Finally speak the truth of what is exactly happening in the real world
@George McCarthy: What truths exactly?
@George McCarthy: On 1 per cent. But he talks sense. Beggining to like hím.
@PΛÐÐY ЯOOПΣY: Ok . Check if he is right about M D opposing travellers encampment in the past. Right or wrong. Fact.
@George McCarthy: He is playing the trump card and the same type of people are falling for it.
@Gary Kearney: tell us about these “same type of people” Gary. sounds like your tarring a group with the same brush. Tut tut
I always look at who I’d have a pint and a moan with(!)… Probably Casey!
@Don Juan: For President? The enacter of legislation, the representative abroad?
Yeah.. maybe an Aftershock or 10 at the end of the night
Could you have made the rating scale less user friendly ?
@Erin Clarke: is it too hard for you to slid a button?
@Shane Buckley: It’s a problem on a phone go try it before mouthing off I’ve tired three phones and page moves rather than slider.
Peter Casey did make a lot of points that have to be proven to be true. If so then he will have scored the best of all the candidates but I did think Ni Riada did well also.
@Paddy Murray: What like diabetics can’t eat chocolate and you’re not a landlord if you own a house.
Cowboys Ted, their all a bunch of cowboys has to be president Higgins all the way
@Ronan Yarrow: Mickey D is the biggest cow boy going. He won’t get my vote and was the one with the poorest performance tonight by far.
@Elizabeth Barry: Sean Gallagher by a country mile was the worst. He was hardly involved
I despair. Audience restricted to minimal involvement. Real issues about the incumbent not tackled. For example, Do you agree that asking for an acre and stables for two horses is reasonable. 900 people homeless in Tipperary. Beginning to likes Casey’s honesty.
Kenny disappointing.
Its simple . Michael D is on 5000 euro a week. Takes it and the rest. Pouts ” you are adding to the list”
How about answers.
Publish before the election details of all your expenses when it matters. Disgusting dodger, evader and old style politico labour grandee.
How did I vote for him and his ilk over decades. I blame soft journalism and syncopathetic media.
@David Glynn: This. Guilty also – voted for the muppet based on his Irish language skills. Regret it.
@David Glynn: The travellers who have knocked back those houses are idiots – that is not in dispute, but to deny all 30,000 travellers in the country their ethnicity because of those 6-7 families is ridiculous. Casey said people should just be Irish and not make themselves ‘special’ because of their ethnicity, but the very act of denying their ethnicity is doing just that. I blame Casey’s and your views on being hard of thinking and racist
@lisa duignan: Not as much as me.
@Dave Harris: How are they a different ethnicity? Are people that choose to live in houses a different ethnicity to those who live in apartments? Its a lifestyle choice masquerading as a ‘culture’. Except the saddest part is that going back decades the travellers were a lot more well-liked than they are now, because any culture they previously had seems to be largely gone unless you count crime as culture
@Frank Scanlon: the government has officially recognised Travellers as an ethnicity. Doesn’t matter what you think, that’s the way it is
@Dave Harris: The majority of the crimes they commit are against the Irish people,so does that make Traveller’s racist?
@Dave Harris: You don’t know me. I came from nothing. I now live beside a long established travellers settlement in a good area with no problems because like my neighbours they behave. You ignore the point. 900 people homeless in Tipperary. They are denying these people and children a home. You can’t demand an acre and stabling for your horses.
So about ethnicity. If the largest proportion of the prison population are travellers (22%) compared to population (0.6%): think. A lot of people are deprived but don’t end up in prison. I expect people to behave, not scam pensioners or terrorise aged farmers and rural people. Who you are, where you come from and what’s your ethnicity are of no interest to me. Just be a good citizen. And don’t gratuitously accuse people of racism .
@David Glynn: i only judge on what you say David
@Dave Harris: fair enough man.
I think that Pat Kenny is the most horrible and opinionated person for interviewing.
@Hans Vos: I think he is the most gifted interviewer
Did anyone find Sean Gallagher was non existent all night. You’d hardly know he was there
@Anthony: Totally agree, how the guy is in 2nd place is a mystery, die hard FF voters I guess?
Wonder are the polls so accurate now….
Will know on 26th..
Michael D professes to be a President for all the people and yet he voted for a tax amnesty for rich tax evaders which forgave them their unpaid taxes, and at a time when PAYE workers were paying 62p in the£.
Some man of the people!!
How can we as the people justify the tens of millions of euro this farce is costing us? Between the costs of sending leaflets to every house in the country and the incumbent presidential costs of salary, security costs, private jets, discretionary spending. What are they going to do? Nothing.
My scaling agreed with “others” in most cases. The surprises I had was that Higgins just barely shades Casey (1st v 2nd), Ni Riadha just shades Duffy (3rd v 4th), and Freeman comes last behind Gallagher in the comparative poll.
This is a poll based on the debate tonight. Some people will always be better than others in debates while always being actually better in their personal ideals and activities.
It is not an election.
My No 1 vote will still go to Ni Riadha, not the best in tonight’s debate but she reminded us how well qualified she is for the job. I never vote Sinn Féin but I’m voting for her to my next President of Ireland, Casey No 2 choice on his recent sayings, Freeman No 3 on her humanity.
@Canny Jem: vote for freeman so she can have a chance of paying that loan back!!!
@Damien McDaid: Joan said she would accept the full Presidential salary and use it to support her humanitarian causes, not for paying a loan back. Admirable of her.
@Canny Jem: Reasonable conclusion.
@Canny Jem: Decent human being.
@Canny Jem: or she could go to Knock and have the loan “cured” like she said her eczema was !
Casey has my vote. He is the next best thing to Gemma O’Doherty.
So far the debates have been most disappointing with candidate’s been asked straight questions and been allowed to deflect, bring back Vincent Brown or John Bowman
@Eamonn Tierney: Agreed totally.
Michael D is head and shoulders above these chancers. 7 more years. Boring as hell nonetheless.
@Damien McDaid: Says it all really about 2018 Irish Society; “I don’t like it but I’ll keep voting the same way and just hope it gets better”
MDH is a waffler. Ex politician all over him.
@Simon Connolly: not really what I said at all. It’s the office of president, and Higgins has served it well. I’m happy to vote him in again. There is a bonkers apathy, that you alluded to, in Irish society but its certainly not present in my decision here.
@Simon Connolly: so from that lot who would be better?
@Damien McDaid: Michael D is hardly head and shoulders above a 5 yr old…
@Joe Mc mahon: kinda my joke there! Glad you liked it x
@Damien McDaid: One thing Micky D is not, is head and shoulders above anyone
Joan Freeman was the winner tonight. Casey, just swung around about travellers and a car going to Belfast, hardly worth a vote for that?
Joan will loose her deposit
@lisa duignan: I had a laugh with Casey complaining about Michael D flying to Belfast in the Govt jet and having a car waiting for him in Belfast at Taxpayers’ expense when he could have driven there.
Shure wasn’t Peter the fella that used a helicopter to fly around seeking Presidential nominations?? (Well, ok, he paid for the helicokta himself).
@lisa duignan: where is Joan really getting her money from? Extreme catholic groups in USA?? She says an ex-boyfriend – but will this ex boyfriend confirm that all the money is coming from him – and that he is not just an conduit of the money from these extreme catholic groups
@Sean Doyle: I read somewhere that when Joan put her name forward, this ex-boyfriend, now a wealthy businessman in the USA, saw her name pop up in the US news and personally offered to support her campaign. The financial support was a ‘loan’ with, on the face of it, interest accruing (9% or was it 5% mentioned?).
I find it quite disturbing that business people get involved being friendly with people in Irish politics or chasing being in the Office of the President of Ireland, like the four millionaires Joan pointed out of the six candidates (Michael D included, which he didn’t deny on the show).
I can only suppose they’re only in for the behind-the-scenes business contacts made by Presidents of Ireland, in Ireland and abroad on their State travels, for their backers and whatever other follows-on happen. Intriguing!
I don’t for a minute think Joan is in for the Presidency on behalf of any Catholic group.
@Canny Jem: That’s the difference. Cost you nothing.
@Canny Jem: there may be 4 millionaires however 1 has basically used the taxpayer as his main source of funding for nearly all of his adult life
@Colm Moylette: and? You work, you get paid! I’m sure he didn’t set the pay rates in the job.
If the contest was about money and arrogance , Casey would win. Thankfully its not. So when it comes to intelligence , experience , gravitas and basic decency , Michael D. is the only option for our vote. This man has a proven track record. Vote No.1 Michael D. Slainte
7 more year for Mickey D but I thought Gavin came off the best on the night.
@PΛÐÐY ЯOOПΣY: I keep on forgetting. Is it Liam or gavin? Remind me again why he had to change his name??? What he was hiding?
Casey is trying trump’s tactic of plain speaking, man of the people, a billionaire ( Trump) who got wealthy by crushing other people. Trump is not a man of the people. Nor is Casey.
Did not know Casey from Adam but he certainly read Trumps manual to hell with the cosseted media mentality and pc gone mad, the ? On halting sites certainly showed 5 of them were unadulterated liars- say anything but don’t offend the cosy
Cartel – media and politicians
Who cares? What a load of old pony!!!
The person who looked the most presidential in the debate last night was…….
Pat Kenny.
@MrE_Daly: shhhhhh don’t put that idea in Kennys head. The mortifying shame of him representing Ireland
No dignity in these debates. It’s not America. The president should be appointed by government from a panel selected by the electorate. Candidates should have a proven track record of public service. Not the current bag of grubby shop keepers. Michael D gets my vote
wow, can’t beleive people are impressed with casey, no bullshit tells it like it is eh? I bet ye are Trump fans too then? Cop on please, we’re choosing who we want to represent ireland on the national stage. Vote for casey if ye want ireland to be a laughing stock. What ever happened to diplomacy in this day and age.
Casey or Michael D for me!!! Gallagher was seductively eyeing the camera all night! Tosser
Like giving diabetics chocolate?? Where is he coming from?? The said people are well aware of their restrictions!! He’s quoted ‘ur not helping them ‘ at times of hypoglycemia sugar is indeed needed to help them recover! As a type 1 diabetic of 40 plus yrs I certainly don’t appreciate his comment & am not stupid enough to accept chocolate from anyone on a daily basis! So sad he needs to highlight such a negative view of type 1 or type 2 does he even know the difference? ???
What has michael d higgins done wrong in his term all other money gabbers canditates looking for salaries as a presdent go awayyyyy
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