7 things we learned from last night's Midlands North-West Prime Time debate
They came, they shouted, they argued and then they all went home.
THE FIRST OF three RTÉ Prime Time debates featuring almost all of the European election candidates took place last night with Midlands North-West hopefuls getting their turn.
Thirteen of the 14 people running in the vast, 15-county constituency turned up for the debate which was not without its controversy beforehand with the format earning the ire of independent hopefuls Luke 'Ming' Flanagan and Rónán Mullen.
The duo were part of the second panel of night, but felt aggrieved at being excluded from the first which was made up of sitting MEPs and those with parties or independents with 10 per cent support or more at the last election.
Panel one was Labour's Lorraine Higgins, Sinn Féin's Matt Carthy, Fine Gael's Mairead McGuinness and Jim Higgins, Fianna Fáil's Pat 'The Cope' Gallagher, and independent Marian Harkin.
Panel two was Direct Democracy Ireland's Ben Gilroy, Fianna Fáil's Thomas Byrne, the aforementioned Ming and Mullen, the Green Party's Mark Dearey, and independents TJ Fay and Mark Fitzsimons.
And here are a few things we learned in case you were in bed/doing something better…
1. Almost everyone targeted the Sinn Féin candidate
Matt Carthy is a big favourite to take a seat in MNW and for that reason alone the other parties were keen, at every opportunity, to have a pop at him particularly after he reeled off the standard Sinn Féin spiel about the current crop of MEPs pursuing "an austerity agenda". He even held up a copy of the party's "fully-costed" pre-Budget submission.
Lorraine Higgins said the SF's policies made her "smile" while McGuinness went for an old favourite, telling Carthy: "Your form of negotiation is almost to put a gun to the head of people… "
Even Marian Harkin had strong words for the Monaghan councillor saying he was "trying to wrap the austerity flag around him". But Labour's Higgins, whose chances of winning a seat are slim, had a go several times, "He'll be outside the room, while I'll be in the room." She even said she'd met Martin Schulz. But how many voters know who he is?
2. Water, water, everywhere
In a constituency which includes Roscommon, where in some parts they might end up paying for undrinkable water, it's no surprise that H2O was a big issue. It formed the basis of Katie Hannon's pre-debate report and was the first question.
Nobody seemed particularly happy about the situation. McGuinness, of Fine Gael, bemoaned the fact Ireland had in the past ignored a bunch of EU water directives and conceded that nobody should pay for water people don't drink.
No comments:
Post a Comment