The Official 2016 Irish General Election thread

[Il Bomber Destro]

Adams won that hands down.

Kenny exposed on cronyism.  Adams nailed him on it.

Martin had a meltdown when Celia Larkin was mentioned and didn't know what to say - nailed on cronyism.

Thought Adams completely bossed it on the housing situation, pointing out the government's role in NAMA. Not only did Adams destroy the 3 other leaders, he utterly destroyed Miriam O'Callaghan on her salary and her fabrications.

Burton was probably the second best on the night as she didn't make as big an idiot of herself as previously.

You would have to be an absolute simpleton to think Martin came out of that at all well, he had the worst showing of all.

[armaghniac]

Adams won that hands down.

Kenny exposed on cronyism.  Adams nailed him on it.

Martin had a meltdown when Celia Larkin was mentioned and didn't know what to say - nailed on cronyism.

Thought Adams completely bossed it on the housing situation, pointing out the government's role in NAMA. Not only did Adams destroy the 3 other leaders, he utterly destroyed Miriam O'Callaghan on her salary and her fabrications.

O'Callaghan asked a reasonable question as to whether an existing shortage of doctors would be aggravated by SF policies, Adams made a reasonable point about morale in the health service,  but he was completely out of line asking O'Callaghan about her salary as this had nothing to do  with the question.

It is a reasonable question to ask of SF to say that they will put money in the health service, but their doctrinaire bullshit will mean that to see a half competent doctor that you'll have to go private in any case.

[macdanger2]

Gerry won hands down.

Took Martin to town when he was moralising about the O6.

What did Fianna Fail ever do for the O6? They stood by obsequiously while a foreign military raised hell on Irish soil in a sectarian statelet they were complicit in a situation they allowed fester. It's hard to listen to a guy talk about matters in the O6 when his party have no interest in them.

Fianna Fail were a party that introduced internment, so it's hardly surprising they are a bit warped on justice.

You're consistent anyway bomber 

Do undecided voters actually make up their minds based on these debates?? And do people generally vote for parties or candidates? It'd be interesting to know the proportion of people who vote 1) specifically for candidates; 2) for parties based on their policies; 3) for parties based on their leader or 4) blindly vote for parties.

[Il Bomber Destro]

Adams won that hands down.

Kenny exposed on cronyism.  Adams nailed him on it.

Martin had a meltdown when Celia Larkin was mentioned and didn't know what to say - nailed on cronyism.

Thought Adams completely bossed it on the housing situation, pointing out the government's role in NAMA. Not only did Adams destroy the 3 other leaders, he utterly destroyed Miriam O'Callaghan on her salary and her fabrications.

O'Callaghan asked a reasonable question as to whether an existing shortage of doctors would be aggravated by SF policies, Adams made a reasonable point about morale in the health service,  but he was completely out of line asking O'Callaghan about her salary as this had nothing to do  with the question.

It is a reasonable question to ask of SF to say that they will put money in the health service, but their doctrinaire bullshit will mean that to see a half competent doctor that you'll have to go private in any case.

Why was he out of line asking her about her salary? She's a state employee who is tasked with a job of moderating a debate so reasons for perceived bias should be disclosed. She was completely out of line in what she said about Danny Morrison though.

[armaghniac]

Why was he out of line asking her about her salary? She's a state employee who is tasked with a job of moderating a debate so reasons for perceived bias should be disclosed. She was completely out of line in what she said about Danny Morrison though.

The question was not biased.
If she had asked about abortion would she have been asked if she had an abortion?
If she had asked about homelessness would she have been asked if she was homeless.?

[Il Bomber Destro]

Why was he out of line asking her about her salary? She's a state employee who is tasked with a job of moderating a debate so reasons for perceived bias should be disclosed. She was completely out of line in what she said about Danny Morrison though.

The question was not biased.
If she had asked about abortion would she have been asked if she had an abortion?
If she had asked about homelessness would she have been asked if she was homeless.?

She's a state employee tasked with moderating a debate. She had a vested interest in her line of questioning which Adam's wanted disclosed. You have an issue with this, for a bizarre reason.

[armaghniac]

Why was he out of line asking her about her salary? She's a state employee who is tasked with a job of moderating a debate so reasons for perceived bias should be disclosed. She was completely out of line in what she said about Danny Morrison though.

The question was not biased.
If she had asked about abortion would she have been asked if she had an abortion?
If she had asked about homelessness would she have been asked if she was homeless.?

She's a state employee tasked with moderating a debate. She had a vested interest in her line of questioning which Adam's wanted disclosed. You have an issue with this, for a bizarre reason.

What was her vested interest? That her or one of her 40 children might end up in a public hospital with shite doctors because all the good ones had left the country because Sf thought they were too rich?

[Il Bomber Destro]

Why was he out of line asking her about her salary? She's a state employee who is tasked with a job of moderating a debate so reasons for perceived bias should be disclosed. She was completely out of line in what she said about Danny Morrison though.

The question was not biased.
If she had asked about abortion would she have been asked if she had an abortion?
If she had asked about homelessness would she have been asked if she was homeless.?

She's a state employee tasked with moderating a debate. She had a vested interest in her line of questioning which Adam's wanted disclosed. You have an issue with this, for a bizarre reason.

What was her vested interest? That her or one of her 40 children might end up in a public hospital with shite doctors because all the good ones had left the country because Sf thought they were too rich?

That she is one of the high earners who would be impacted by these taxes. That's a smoking gun of a vested interest that hadn't been disclosed.

[muppet]

Why was he out of line asking her about her salary? She's a state employee who is tasked with a job of moderating a debate so reasons for perceived bias should be disclosed. She was completely out of line in what she said about Danny Morrison though.

The question was not biased.
If she had asked about abortion would she have been asked if she had an abortion?
If she had asked about homelessness would she have been asked if she was homeless.?

I am guessing by the lack of histrionics on here that she didn't ask him if he was ever a member of the IRA. No doubt that would be out of line.

Regardless, I didn't watch a single minute of any debate as I regard it as nothing more than popcorn for media junkies and party lackies and completely irrelevant to anything in the real world. In fact I am sick of all of the candidates promising crap that most of them will be unable to even seriously propose, never mind deliver on. Mandarins in Ireland, under instruction from the EU, run this country. We saw that very clearly with Patrick Honohan. Politicians are largely irrelevant now.

[Rossfan]

This bomber buck named himself well.
A total SF lickspittle.
Didn't watch the nonsense and I can't see many people changing their minds because someone was a good debater.
By the way Miriam is a SEMI State employee and isn't paid from  Taxes - unless you call the TV Licence which part funds RTÉ a tax.

[Shamrock Shore]

Adams was car crash again last night.

The muddle he got in over the SF healthcare policy.
The sidestepping over the additional "7c in the euro" for those over €100k - not calling it as it actually is, a tax rate of 59%
The "who is Senator Cahill" remark

but to top it all off he wraps up with some music hall with his references to the "three amigos"

Only for the blood still dripping off his hands I would find him amusing.....

[ballinaman]

Adams was car crash again last night.

The muddle he got in over the SF healthcare policy.
The sidestepping over the additional "7c in the euro" for those over €100k - not calling it as it actually is, a tax rate of 59%
The "who is Senator Cahill" remark

but to top it all off he wraps up with some music hall with his references to the "three amigos"

Only for the blood still dripping off his hands I would find him amusing.....

In fairness he did say...who is Sandra Cahill? I thought Kenny said Sandra at 1st too.

[AZOffaly]

I did too. And I thought Gerry was trying to poke fun at Enda getting her name wrong.

[Billys Boots]

I don't think FG have ever been in back-to-back governments; you'd have thought that this should have been a shoo-in for them, as there's no realistic alternative.  We could have another election before summer. 

[Esmarelda]

It's bad when you watch party leaders explaining or defending their policies and you feel that could have answered better for them.

Gerry is atrocious. I literally couldn't watch at times although he grew into it. I thought Miriam handled them all well which was a pleasant surprise and I must say that RTE have done a great job across all their debates and coverage.

Gerry has no idea how they're going to recruit staff for the health staff but we can vote him out in five years if he doesn't. I don't mind that he asked Miriam what her wage was, even though it had absolutely nothing to do with how they were going to recruit health workers. Fair play to her for giving a straight answer. What I don't understand is why the other leaders pick on Gerry with regards to the north. It's the one issue he's completely at ease with and he particularly pulls FF up on their lack of interest in it, them being the republican party and all.

Enda was asked if it was fair that a couple on € 40k would save €2k in FG's economic proposals whereas the same couple on € 150k would save three times as much, i.e. €6k. He pressed play on the tape and rewound it every time Miriam repeated the question - "the point is that everyone will benefit". Surely he could have siad (and known) that the former saves 5% whilst the latter saves 4%. At worst it would have stopped her asking, at best it answers the bloody question.

Kenny was also badly stuck on the Nulty appointment which Adams used very well. Martin was also badly caught but had the benefit of it being much longer ago.

I think Martin is the best debater but by that he's just better at hiding his bullshit than Enda and Gerry.

Joan, in fairness to her, kept out of trouble except on the Begg issue where she rambled away until she was told to shut up.

Overall, entertaining enough, and let's be honest, that's what it's on for.

Hung dáil and we'll see if either of the two peacocks lower their feathers for the grand coalition.