RTÉ’s Claire Byrne
Next Monday night.
On RTÉ One, at 9.35pm.
Claire Byrne Live Leaders’ Debate.
Laura Fitzgerald writes:
“Next Monday night (27th January) Claire Byrne will host the biggest Election 2020 leaders debate of the campaign so far.
“For the very first time RTÉ will broadcast a special leaders’ debate live from Galway.
“The seven political parties leaders joining Claire on stage for the major two-hour live debate will be: Mary Lou McDonald (Sinn Féin), Leo Varadkar (Fine Gael), Brendan Howlin (Labour), Micheál Martin (Fianna Fáil), Richard Boyd Barrett (Solidarity/People Before Profit), Eamon Ryan (Green Party) and Roísín Shortall (Social Democrats).
“The leaders will also face questions from an audience of over 300 people independently selected by RED C Research polling company.”
Two HOURS?
Thanks Laura
I would be very surprised if the audience was going to be representative-it will be the usual SF/PBP activists banging on about homelessness and the health service when they have no credible plans of how they would fix either other than that they would do better than FG just because.
Sure, people who care about those things must be left wing activists…. By the same toke I assume you are an FG activist..
I’m not but I will be voting for them as my number 2 (after the greens) to keep the PBP and FF candidates out in my constituency if the green candidate doesnt make it. If any of the other parties had any actual policies to fix the housing and health crisis I would consider voting for them but I have seen nothing other than empty promises and targets.
bangin on about annoying little things like homelessness and the health service .. would they ever give over, these things aren’t important, what’s important is.. is.. what actually? what’s important to us staunch, hard core FG fans, Christopher?
What are the other parties proposing to solve both these issues? If there are any credible plans I would love to hear them and have my mind changed!
no no, lets stick with FG. After 9 years of destroying the health service, 4 of those years during an economic boom, I say we keep with them. why take a chance on anyone else? Sure, people will moan about them not doing anything good in health for almost a decade, but I’d prefer to watch it deteriorate in a way I know and am used to, for another 4, hopefully 8 years or more, with the devil i know, Fine Gael, rather than to give someone else a go. At least there’ll be no surprises, we know FG will continue harming the sector, and we don’t have to take the gamble on someone else. Isn’t that way better?
it reminds me of when i went to a mechanic to get the lights fixed, and when i went to pick it up, the bumper was gone and he charged me double. He does stuff like this every visit, and I’ve been goin to him for 9 years and my car is little more than two panels of metal and a wheel.. but look, who else am i meant to go to? huh? at least i know this mechanic, and i know he’ll do a bad job, but id prefer that than go to.. to some.. some OTHER mechanic. ugh, the thoughts.
And how would you fix them?
Me:
Homelessness: add a Fat Cat Tax of 2c per euro on all assets and income above €15 million. Fund the councils – not developers – to build homes to a high standard. Open the housing list to all income levels so ghettos won’t form. In every council estate, have subvented housing for artists, writers, composers and entrepreneurs, on condition they run local workshops and mentor neighbours.
Health: a) bring in specialised auditors from countries with excellent health systems to examine where the money is going and how the system should be working; b) form a Citizens’ council composed of patients, nurses, doctors, consultants, hospital cleaners, radiologists, etc to examine the system; c) change other systems such as school, work and hospital food so the national diet is more nourishing,and transport so that most people could cycle safely to work and school (cycling 30 miles per week has been shown to almost halve your risk of contracting cancer or heart disease).
leo will just blame ff for sinking the country, bang on about sinn fein kangaroo courts and smirk at anything with a whiff of socialism about it.
he’s a poo in a suit, that’s all.
Is the leaser of ACI, Gemma O’Doherty not invited? John Waters running under the ACI banner too :-D
No Richard Barrett National Party
Renua A N Other
Or Herman and whatever they’re called either
If they go to the trouble of registering and subjecting themselves to the rigours of SIPO then I don’t see how RTÉ assume it’s their role to decide who gets a podium
Clearly Standards in some Public Offices don’t apply equally
They are basically independents with delusions of grandeur (among many other delusions).
So what
Other than that’s up to the voters to decide
Not RTÉ
Well Renua don’t have a leader tbf…just wanted to type that..
@Ghost
What’s that got to do with it? They can nominate someone
Like the LoveBoth groups nominated a then Shinner Peadar Tobin to represent them at a televised debate
Let’s hear from all of them
“just wanted to type that..”
It was just a pleasure to highlight the leaderless aspect.
Fair enough I find them comical too
But put them all up behind podiums
And let everyone laugh at who they like
Or not
RTÉ deciding who we should hear from in a General Election is bananas
And it’s a slippery slope to where we don’t what to talk about
last time out they said 3 TDs minimum, so Renua got into the debate and the Greens didn’t. Not sure what the criteria is now as the SDs only have 2 TDs.
RTÉ are actually cutting and pasting debate in a General Election
That’s not their job
It’s the voters that get to decide which party is worthy or not
if an organisation has their application to be registered as a Political Party signed off by the Clerk of the Dáil then they are qualified to participate equally alongside all the other registered Political Parties in the State
RTÉ don’t get to decide who any voter should hear from
*talks over each other*
that’s where i’d be found out if i was runnin .. its 2 hours, i cant do anything for more than 1 hour.