The leaders of the four smaller parties in the Dáil traded sharp exchanges in the first of two high-stakes TV debates in the general election campaign.
The leaders of Labour, the Progressive Democrats, the Greens and Sinn Fein tried to set out their policy priorities and attack weaknesses in their opponents' arguments.
The election rivals all tried to score political points on key campaign issues like health, jobs, public services and cost of living concerns.
Each leader made a brief statement on their key policies from stand-up podiums in the blue-tinged studios of RTE's Prime Time.
Labour's Pat Rabbitte began: "Why can't your mother in law get a hospital bed or brother-in-law get a garda when he needs one?
"Labour is the engine of change for a better society."
He reiterated his five commitments for change: more beds, pre-school education, more gardai, abolish the means test for carers and help young people to buy a home.
Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams said that the economy should serve the people and not property speculators. Unable to resist a reference to the Northern Ireland peace process, he added: "We have delivered big time against the odds."
PD leader Michael McDowell said his party believed in the talent and ambition of the Irish people and to protect jobs and prosperity.
Greens leader Trevor Sargent began with an anecdote about a hard-pressed female commuter he met at a train station in Lusk in Co Dublin. He referred to improvements in other countries like Germany and Finland where Greens had been in government.
As the debate continued, Mr McDowell's abrasive barrister training came in handy and at times he tried to direct his own questions at his colleagues. Mr Adams denied his party had joined the rush to the political centre with pre-election changes to its tax policies. "The fact is he hadn't done any sums. You don't care about the economy of this state," Mr McDowell said. Mr Adams countered: "The economy should serve the people, not the other way around."
After Sinn Fein criticism of Labour, Mr Rabbitte insisted that he had led the opposition in the Dail to the privatisation of healthcare. As expected, Mr McDowell attacked Green policies and claimed that TD Dan Boyle proposed a rise in corporation tax exactly a year ago. "Are you not allowed to change your mind?" Mr Sargent hit back.
Defending his criticism of Mr Rabbitte as a "left-wing idealogue", Mr McDowell added: "I'm surrounded by the left, the hard-left and the left-overs."
Mr Rabbitte said: "Michael is like a menopausal Paris Hilton. He is an inveterate attention-seeker." Mr Adams reminded his colleagues that he was on the average industrial wage and that the bank owned his house. "Which bank is that, the Northern Bank?" asked Mr McDowell.
In a jibe at McDowell's college debating background, Mr Rabbitte said that viewers did not want to see "old fellows like us debating like we were in the Literary & Historical Society".
Anchor Mark Little queried Mr Adams where the costings were in his manifesto, launched earlier today.
On the controversial Coalition's plan to co-locate public and private hospital beds, Mr Sargent said it was no substitute for proper government investment in the sector. Mr Sargent appeared to have scribbled notes on the back of his hand to help him remember his arguments.
The Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Opposition leader Enda Kenny will go head to head tomorrow night.
PA