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Sinn Féin had sent a legal letter to RTÉ objecting to Mary Lou McDonald's exclusion.

Mary Lou McDonald to appear in RTÉ party leaders' debate

The decision came after a meeting of the RTÉ Election Steering Group.

LAST UPDATE | 3 Feb 2020

RTÉ HAS REVERSED its stance on tomorrow’s Prime Time debate and has announced that Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald will be invited to take part.

The decision was taken today following a meeting of the RTÉ Election Steering Group.

It follows the publication of a number of opinion polls over the course of the campaign, which have shown levels of support for Sinn Féin among voters.

The most recent poll by Red C, published in yesterday’s Business Post, put the party at 24% alongside Fianna Fáil, which was also on 24%, while Fine Gael polled at 21%.

In a statement, the broadcaster said it had “strongly noted” the Broadcast Authority of Ireland’s rules on fairness, objectivity and impartiality in news and current affairs in its decision to include McDonald in the debate.

“RTÉ is very mindful it has a duty to the public to reflect events as they unfold,” it said.

“During the course of the campaign and over recent days, RTÉ has taken into consideration the notable change in the dynamic of the campaign on the ground and representation and statements by political parties.

“They dynamic has also been consistently reflected in all opinion polls since the campaign commenced.”

McDonald tweeted this evening that she would accept RTÉ’s invitation.

The broadcaster’s statement also said that the leaders of five other parties will be invited to a debate on Prime Time this Thursday.

Sinn Féin’s director of elections Pearse Doherty welcomed the decision, but said it should not have been a last-minute announcement by RTÉ.

The party had made repeated requests for their party leader to be included in the final televised debate airing days before the electorate go to the polls.

It previously wrote to the broadcaster after consulting with its legal team.

RTE previously said the lineup was based on previous vote shares and decided to exclude the Sinn Fein leader based on its data.

‘Snapshot in time’

Both Varadkar and Martin said they would have no issue with McDonald’s participation following the publication of yesterday’s poll.

The Fine Gael leader acknowledged at the weekend that the election is now a “three-horse race”.

Acknowledging that his party is behind in the opinion polls, the Taoiseach claimed they are only a “snapshot in time”.

Tomorrow’s debate is the second leaders’ debate the national broadcaster has hosted, with Claire Byrne Live last week broadcasting a live debate between seven party leaders.

Virgin Media Television also hosted a head-to-head debate between Varadkar and Martin and a seven-way leaders’ debate

RTÉ announced a number of weeks ago that tomorrow’s Prime Time’s Leader Debate, the last on RTÉ before Saturday’s election, would be between the leaders of the two largest political parties.

RTÉ had said this decision was taken after taking account of “objective and impartial criteria” such as the last general election in 2016 and the 2019 local and European elections. 

In an article published on its website last week, RTÉ said that both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael had “more than 40 seats” in the previous Dáil, which was “more than twice the number of seats of the nearest party, Sinn Féin”. 

RTÉ had argued that the figure of 40 seats is significant because it “represents half of the number of seats that are needed to form a majority”.

The broadcaster also said that opinion polls “cannot be accorded very significant standing” because they are “based on a very small sample of voter opinion”.

Sinn Féin previously sent a legal letter to RTÉ calling on the national broadcaster to reverse its exclusion of McDonald from tomorrow’s debate.

Both Varadkar and Martin had said that they had no objection to McDonald taking part in tomorrow’s debate. 

With reporting from Stephen McDermott and Press Association.

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    Mute Mareesa O Dwyer
    Favourite Mareesa O Dwyer
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    Nov 24th 2011, 12:02 PM

    I am an Irish woman working in the UK researching physical activity trends, motor skills and play behaviours of preschool age children. The statistics are frightening. The bottom line is children are not active enough to benefit their health, they do not have the fundamental movement skill development they should have by the age of 5-6 and their parents are under the impression that they get their physical activity from school – this is most definitely not the case. In the same way children learn their ABC’s to read and write, they must learn the ABC’s of movemnt (catch, throw, hop, strike). This will contribute to life long participation in sport and physical activity. I am delighted to see Eamonn Coghlan take a stance and raise awareness during a Seanad sitting, especially given the research produced by the ERSI this month from the Growing up in Ireland study.

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    Mute BustingMyAss
    Favourite BustingMyAss
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    Nov 24th 2011, 12:20 PM

    In terms of bang for your buck, I think field sports are well catered for in Ireland. If the Government are serious about improving health, then they need to focus on the people falling thru the net, i.e. the non-sporty types. Money should be spent on developing walking/jogging tracks, more swimming pools and gyms (outdoor and indoor) to capture the percentage of the population who want to be active but don’t like competitive sport.

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    Mute Cormac Flanagan
    Favourite Cormac Flanagan
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    Nov 24th 2011, 1:13 PM

    I agree. Was lucky to have both field sports (hurling) and an athletic club and a (outdoor) swimming area. Most don’t. With the growth of the GAA, rugby and women’s football the government (as stated above) should put money into pools, tracks etc. also encourage more cycling to school.

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    Mute David Paul Beehan
    Favourite David Paul Beehan
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    Nov 24th 2011, 5:12 PM

    Look how few of them are there at work!! Why are we bothering to pay these people??

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    Mute Conor Graham
    Favourite Conor Graham
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    Nov 24th 2011, 7:06 PM

    It’s pretty bloody tough to stand on one foot with your eyes closed even in good physical shape!

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    Mute Paige C Harrison
    Favourite Paige C Harrison
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    Nov 24th 2011, 6:50 PM

    Great opportunity for Enda if he wanted to show a new politics. On his next cabinet reshuffle replace James Reilly with Eamonn as minister for health.

    In one action you would put someone who believed and lived health promotion into office; would show non-partisan politics and the relevance of senate.

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    Mute Colm Fitzpatrick
    Favourite Colm Fitzpatrick
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    Nov 24th 2011, 5:09 PM

    Its funny looking around the room at politicians and senators who look like the least healthy people in the country trying to get us to do the right thing. I have to say in my experience if you’re trying to convince people to make what are big behavioural changes you need to lead by example.

    Why do we have the least healthy looking cabinet member as Minister for Health?
    Why do we send overweight people to give advice to the public at healthy living classes or clinics on Diabetes or indeed anything to do with diet?

    Answer : Because its just all a game. We don’t believe it ourselves so we don’t do it.

    Thanks Eamonn for raising the subject. You have the look of the right person to tell us to how to do the right thing but you need to put on about 50kg before you can be ever a candidate to work in Health Promotion.

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