There are occasional sparks – though nothing to knock viewers out of the stupor into which they may have slipped early in the evening. Taoiseach Simon Harris clashes with Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald when she accuses him of “faux concern” for children amid lengthy waiting times for scoliosis treatment. There is also a testy exchange between McDonald, arranged to the far right of the stage like an unpopular sibling at a family gathering, and Tánaiste and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin (in the middle) about the idea that “100 years of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil ” is inherently negative.
Coming out swinging, Martin says the “Sinn Féin movement ...
opposed everything that built this country”. McDonald criticises the “tone of his remarks”. Paint dries.
The earth spins. Time creaks to a halt. Hannon is a calm and collected moderator – arguably to a fault during a broadcast that cries out for extra pizazz.
She begins by hoping for an “energetic debate” but adds “the public at home deserves to hear everyone out”. Alas, the debate is not especially energetic, and, as a TV spectacle rather than a showpiece for Irish democracy, might have benefited from being a little shoutier. The country’s future is at stake – why have all the participants apparently been tranquillised en route to the studio? The 10 politicians include representatives from across the spectrum – politically and in the fashion sense.
Richard Boyd Barrett of People Be.