Glennon: Debate 'an exercise in showbusiness'

Former Fianna Fáil TD Jim Glennon has hit out at last night's debate, branding it "an exercise in showbusiness".

The PR expert says it will have little, if any, bearing on the result of the election, and was the last thing politics needed.

The online community was more involved in last night's five-way debate than the face-off between the Fianna Fáil and Labour leaders last week.

Some 3,300 messages on it were posted on Twitter between 6pm and midnight.

However, online media analyst Stephen O'Leary says the virtual community's response to the debate set-up was that it did not work well.

"Even though there was five people in the room, this really appeared like a three-way debate," said O'Leary.

"Crucially, Gilmore and Gormley made up less than 12% of all the mentions last night, so really there was only three people in this debate as far as people who were engaging online were concerned."