FINE GAEL leader Enda Kenny emerged largely unscathed from last night’s televised election debate involving the leaders of all five main political parties last night.
It was expected he would face an onslaught from Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin and Labour leader Eamon Gilmore following his refusal to appear in last week’s debate on TV3 and his party’s continued strong showing in opinion polls.
In the event, he appeared to hold his own, made no errors, and affected a relaxed air during the 90-minute debate.
At the conclusion there was no clear-cut winner, although Mr Martin was marginally the strongest debater and Fine Gael will be relieved that Mr Kenny was capable of handling the pressure. Mr Gilmore delivered the best lines of the night – particularly about the banks themselves committing the biggest bank robbery in the history of the State – but was not assertive.
Mr Martin consistently rounded on Gerry Adams and Sinn Féin – a party to which Fianna Fáil is electorally vulnerable in several key constituencies.
Mr Adams - widely perceived to have performed very poorly during the smaller parties’ leaders’ debate in 2007 - was far more fluid and had a command of detail that he lacked in that debate.
For his part, the Green Party leader John Gormley focused on policy initiatives and was successful in portraying the Green Party as distinct from the other four, although he faced attacks from the opposition leaders for the Greens’ role in government.
The leaders clashed on a number of policy issues including help for mortgage holders in difficulty; tax policy; spending cuts; health and the banking crisis. Mr Martin questioned how Sinn Féin would source the €50 billion needed to “burn” bondholders. When Mr Adams attempted to bring up the subject of white collar fraud, Mr Martin said he had no right to talk about fraud given his party’s history.
At another juncture, critiquing the Sinn Féin bank policies, he addressed Mr Adams directly: “Now Gerry, I’ll tell you you’re a bit of the magician if you can pull that. You would be a great host of the Late Late Show because there would be one for everyone in the audience.”
However, both Mr Kenny and Mr Gilmore scored heavily when criticising Mr Martin’s record in government and his time as minister for health when the HSE was founded.
Mr Kenny said the health system created by Micheál Martin had failed the Irish people, as did Mr Gilmore.
At one stage, Mr Gilmore and Mr Kenny clashed on their respective fiscal plans, with Mr Gilmore claiming that there was a €5 billion hole in the Fine Gael plans. However, Mr Kenny countered effectively.
The programme, presented by Pat Kenny began at 9.30pm. The studio audience of 140 comprised of undecided voters, six of whom asked pre-set questions.
Leaders were given 45 seconds to respond to the question with efforts made to confine contributions to 45 seconds during the “free debate”.
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