TV debate fails to set pulses racing

The nerves were there. The blinding lights, flashing cameras, and the leaders armed with folders under their arms. This was it. The last in the leader’s debates and just days before people go to the polls for the 2016 general election.

Party leaders arrived as a gaggle of media waited at the front of the RTÉ TV studios in Donnybrook, Dublin. Do you want to be taoiseach? Are you ready for the debate? Each stopped to give their own spin.

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams had abandoned his party’s battle bus and arrived in a four-wheel drive, accompanied by his minders.

Amid the surprise return support for Fianna Fáil in recent days, the Louth TD had a simple caution.

“Don’t give the keys of the car back to Fianna Fáil who had wrecked the vehicle in the first place,” he told reporters.

The comments speak volumes about where the week has brought the campaign, with the focus now turning on how Fianna Fáil has managed to undo Fine Gael’s lead.

For more election news, analysis and general banter join us HERE

And how are you feeling, asked another journalist?

His back hurt, was the answer. It had been difficult listening to people’s “complaints and grievances” during the campaign, confided the Sinn Féin leader.

Fianna Fáil’s Micheál Martin, while admitting he wanted to be taoiseach, said the debate was more about concerns of the people, than about “the bubble” of Leinster House. It was about fairness, trumpeted the Cork South Central TD.

Joan Burton on the other hand, reflecting the seismic challenge Labour now faces, was more candid, admitting the contest would be “fair” but “tough”.

A formidable-looking Enda Kenny arrived (almost forgetting to stop and speak to the media before the debate), declaring that he had now been in more debates than any other Taoiseach.

That was that, then. The people faced a “critical choice” about who would run the country for the next five years, he quipped, adding that he intended “to spell out why they should” support his government.

It's all to play for as Election 2016 campaigns enter their final days https://t.co/qJKrzBNKHd (DOD) #GE16 pic.twitter.com/7lsAXaI5Wh

— Irish Examiner (@irishexaminer) February 22, 2016

When the lights came up in studio, presenter Miriam O’Callaghan beat it straight to the tough questions. Enda Kenny was first.

“I accept that many people are not feeling the recovery,” the Fine Gael leader was forced to admit.

Then it was Martin’s turn. He denied that his party had thrown the economy “under the bus”. This had been confirmed by the banking inquiry, he surprisingly told us.

Joan Burton this time around had slowed her pace and looked calmer for the debate.

“The cupboard was bare,” she told Miriam about when Labour entered government and when she claimed she sought to keep weekly welfare payments intact.

Given his republican past association with the IRA, should he lead the country, Miriam quizzed Adams.

“Are you a fitting person to be the taoiseach of this country?” she said.

For more election news, analysis and general banter join us HERE

Mr Adams replied that he had never shied away from his past. He also tried to turn the attention to Martin and Fianna Fáil.

“Micheál did drive the bus over the cliff. Now he wants the keys back to get into the bus again,” he said.

Later, Mr Adams stumbled on the numbers in health. Mr Kenny, furthermore, also tried to build his attacks against Mr Martin on health in numbers.

“I wasn’t exposed by the minister for health [on the numbers],” fired back Mr Martin at one stage.

The debate, cut back down to four leaders and without any studio audience, was eerily calm compared to previous clashes. With a slower pace though, it allowed each question to be teased out, especially when some of the leaders tried to avoid answering questions.