One in five voters tuned into leaders’ debate

Almost one in five adults in Ireland tuned in to watch the first leaders’ debate of the general election campaign, which was followed by all four of the contenders declining to say whether they won or lost the live TV battle.

Sat, 13 Feb, 2016 - 00:00

Fiachra Ó Cionnaith

TV3 and Newstalk radio hosted the first of four live discussions on Thursday night and figures released afterwards show an average of 430,000 people watched the 90-minute programme.

In all, 803,600 people tuned in to see the four-way debate between Fine Gael’s Enda Kenny, Labour’s Joan Burton, Fianna Fáil’s Micheál Martin, and Sinn Féin’s Gerry Adams for more than one minute.

The minute-by-minute figure hit a peak of 502,000 just after 10pm, when Mr Kenny, Ms Burton, and Mr Martin all rounded on Mr Adams over his party’s special criminal court views.

However, on average, 430,000 were watching at any point — the equivalent of one in five potential voters. The figures were revealed after all four of the party leaders declined to say they had won the first public battle for voter support.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny claimed what occurred was “a debate for the people”.

“It’s not a question of winners, it’s a question of giving the people outside [information]. I don’t look at debates or discussions in that sense,” he said.

Mr Adams joked with reporters “what do you think?” when asked the same question, before describing his rivals as “Punch and Judy” and noting the debate was “rowdy” and “I knew I wasn’t going to be heard”.

Mr Martin said “neither” when asked if he was Punch or Judy, before saying he wanted to get across “that the Irish people have a choice”. However, he declined to say who, if anyone, won.

Ms Burton said she is “looking forward to round two and round three” and that who won is “for the viewers to decide”.

The next live debate, involving leaders of seven parties with three or more TDs, will take in Limerick and be aired by RTÉ on Monday.

Meanwhile, Sean Barrett has confirmed he will not seek renomination as ceann comhairle. The widely expected move means the Fine Gael TD will be a backbencher in the next Dáil.