Tubridy excited but nervous about presidency debate

RYAN TUBRIDY said he is excited but nervous about hosting the first televised debate of the presidential campaign on tonight’s Late Late Show.

Candidates will be grilled after a performance by Jedward and an interview with Mike Murphy about his return to television.

Before the debate gets under way, host Tubridy will interview each candidate individually for about five minutes, with the exception of David Norris.

The independent candidate already appeared on the show on September 16 to announce he would be re-entering the race after initially withdrawing over controversy surrounding a clemency letter.

The show’s producers said he will not be interviewed again “in order to ensure fairness and balance”.

Speaking ahead of the debate, Mr Tubridy said: “Viewers have flooded us with questions for the presidential candidates. I hope that at the end of the night, the audience will have gleaned some insight into who their preferred candidate is.”

Producers spent yesterday discussing the format of the programme and independent auditor Michael O’Neill from PricewaterhouseCoopers supervised a draw to decide the order of the candidates’ interviews and appearances.

Fine Gael candidate, Gay Mitchell, will be interviewed first, followed by Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness and Independent Mary Davis. In part three, independents Dana Rosemary Scallon and Sean Gallagher will be interviewed, followed by Labour candidate Michael D Higgins.

A TV3 debate will take place next Tuesday.