Sinn Féin's Mary Lou McDonald accepts RTÉ invite to take part in Prime Time leaders' debate

Update: Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has confirmed that she will participate in RTÉ's Prime Time debate tomorrow night.

In a statement, Sinn Féin's Director of Elections Pearse Doherty said he was "happy" to confirm the party leader's participation, but added that "this should not have come down to a last-minute decision on the part of RTÉ".

He said: "Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil wanted this election to be about them, but this election was never about two parties with no real policy differences, who have effectively been in government together for the last four years.

"Neither of them represent change."

Earlier: RTÉ invite Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald to participate in Prime Time leaders' debate

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has been officially invited to take part in tomorrow night’s head-to-head leaders’ debate by RTE, the broadcaster has said.

“RTÉ has today confirmed it will extend an invite for the Prime Time Leaders Debate to Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald, which will see the leaders of the three biggest political parties debate live in RTÉ Studios on Tuesday night,” a statement from the broadcaster said.

It added that the remaining five party leaders would now also be invited to take part in a debate on Prime Time on Thursday night.

The broadcaster said it had reached its decision on the back of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland’s code of fairness, which mandates broadcasters to amend their approach across elections “so as to ensure fairness, objectivity and impartiality”.

RTE said it had “taken into consideration” the “notable change in the dynamic of the campaign on the ground, and representation and statements by political parties”, together with the results of the many opinion polls released to date.

“We now consider it necessary to amend our original approach, respond to the changes in the campaign, and continue to put the audience first in the making of Tuesday night's programme,” it said.

Sinn Féin has been calling for its inclusion in the debate since before the first opinion poll was released. A series of sequential polls by different media organisations has shown the party on a consistent 20% of the vote, with the most recent, released by the Business Post newspaper on Sunday, showing that Sinn Féin has leapfrogged Fine Gael and is now running neck and neck with Fianna Fail on 24%.

The remaining parties have also clamoured to be included in the debate, with Labour and People Before Profit having written to RTE to say that excluding them diminishes the legitimacy of any broadcast given that not all points-of-view are being represented.

RTÉ invite Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald to participate in final leaders' debate

- Original reporting by Digital Desk

RTÉ has decided to include the Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald in the final televised debate of the election campaign.

RTÉ's General Election steering committee met at 11am to consider representations from the party to take part.

The broadcaster was to hold a head-to-head between Fianna Fáil's Micheál Martin and Fine Gael's Leo Varadkar only on Prime Time tomorrow night.

Both leaders had said they had no difficulties with accommodating Ms McDonald in the debate.

In making their decision, RTÉ said it "is very mindful it has a duty to the public to reflect events as they unfold.

"During the course of the campaign and over recent days RTÉ has taken into consideration the notable change in the dynamic of the campaign on the ground, and representation and statements by political parties. The dynamic has also been consistently reflected in all opinion polls since the campaign commenced.

"We now consider it necessary to amend our original approach, respond to the changes in the campaign, and continue to put the audience first in the making of Tuesday night's programme."

It comes as the latest Sunday Business Post/Red C poll put Sinn Féin is on 24%, up 3% on last week.

The poll shows that Fianna Fáil is down two points to 24%, while Fine Gael is down two points to 21%.