Micheál Martin felt last night's debate was 'stilted'

The Fianna Fáil leader has told Red FM in Cork that he felt last night's final leaders debate on RTÉ television was stilted.

He said because of the format - where leaders mostly answered questions and outlined their positions - there was no real crossfire.

He said an hour and a half was probably was too long and admitted the public may be suffering from debate fatigue.

This was the third and final leaders debate of this campaign: “I noticed after the first debate there was huge comment afterwards and indeed on the second one.

“I haven’t been out and about after this particular one.

“I thought maybe it was a bit more of an interview format type debate and maybe despite what people say that they don’t like the toing and froing and arguing, you do need a bit of debate as well.

“To a certain extent it was stilted, there was no real crossfire.”