TV debate said to have counted for little

Tonight’s on-screen confrontation between Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Fine Gael leader Michael Noonan is thought unlikely to have made much difference to the outcome of Friday’s nationwide poll.

The two rivals were following a tradition set in recent elections by appearing in the living rooms of Ireland together days ahead of the big vote.

Both began the TV engagement with a brief, direct-to-camera address outlining their own policies and criticising their political opponents.

Mr Ahern, making his second election-eve TV appearance - the first he was said to have lost against then Fine Gael chief John Bruton, but then went on to narrowly win the election five years ago - started off the more relaxed, with his counterpart looking relatively stilted.

But when the debate proper got under way, it was the Fine Gael leader who generally seemed, initially, at any rate, more at ease under the glare of the lights and the scrutiny of the cameras.

The exchanges began with the issue of crime - permitting Mr Noonan at one point to talk of the prime minister being like ‘‘an Alice in Bertie land’’, and proceeded through the health sector and the economy, seen as the central point of dispute in the campaign - and certainly the one that prompted the most spirited argument.

At one point the issue of sleaze inevitably arose - and prompted an up-front, frank statement from Mr Ahern, whose party has been frequently associated with the whiff of corruption, however peripherally, in recent years.

The Taoiseach, whose predecessor, Charles Haughey, still faces courtroom action, said: ‘‘We have had difficulties - I think all parties have had difficulties.

‘‘And it fell into my watch, most in the term of my watch, although there had been scandals and difficulties before I became Taoiseach.

‘‘We have had a number of serious incidents and serious wrong-doings that had to be investigated.

‘‘On every single one of them, I set out to make sure that we had a better political system, that we reformed the political system, that we hid nothing.’’

‘‘We set up eight inquiries in all so that we can not only clean up public life, but we can improve public life and restructure public life in a way that we can be proud of into the future.’’

At the end of the 80 minute TV show, though, everything that happened may have been irrelevant.

Minutes before the programme - hosted by presenter Miriam O’Callaghan - got under way, the latest election opinion poll, based on figures prepared by the Market Research Bureau of Ireland for the Irish Times newspaper, showed Fianna Fail still well ahead, and possibly in line for the first overall Dail majority in more than 20 years.

A second poll, due out later, is expected to further confirm Mr Ahern’s strong position, effectively confirming his job was safe with or without the support of another party.

And it was looking increasingly as though the TV performance of the two leaders might have counted for little - and that the collective electoral mind had already been made up.

:: One issue arising tonight prompted no divisions between the two political rivals. On Northern Ireland, Mr Noonan declared: ‘‘The Taoiseach’s record is very good. I would continue on the road he has mapped out.’’