RTÉ defends exclusion of Greens from debate

RTÉ’s failure to include Green Party leader Eamon Ryan in two party leaders’ debates to be broadcast this month is fundamentally “unfair, undemocratic, and unconstitutional”, the High Court has been told.

RTÉ’s decision that only parties with three elected TDs can feature in the leaders’ debates amounts to telling the electorate Mr Ryan and his party “do not matter” and are not “significant players”, said Siobhán Phelan, SC for the Green Party.

If the court finds RTÉ’s decision is capable of “skewing” electoral choices and interfering with free exercise of a vote, as the Greens maintain, the court must find it unlawful, she submitted.