The Second Leaders Debate

The second leaders debate of the 2011 campaign saw the two speakers from last Tuesday’s first battle joined by the leaders of Fine Gael, Sinn Féin and the Green Party, as RTÉ’s “The Frontline” hosted a ninety-five minute programme. Pat Kenny became more involved than his TV3 counterpart, Vincent Browne, did last week, asking supplementary questions of the party leaders and drawing them back toward the question at hand when they began the inevitable drifting from the subject or began bickering with an opponent.

The debate saw a few firsts in Irish elections. No Irish television debate had ever included five speakers, nor had any been performed in front of a live studio audience. With the six questions coming from this audience, which was handpicked by Millward Brown Lansdowne on the basis of averaging the national demographic and voter profile in the last general election, the five party leaders were forced to answer questions from a representative group of the Irish electorate.

The opening question was concerned with Ireland’s survival, with an emphasis on emigration. Fine Gael’s Enda Kenny and the Greens’ John Gormley struck a similar tone by empathising with the pain of emigration. Mr. Gormley and Fianna Fáil’s Micheál Martin linked the end of this scourge with the need to radically reform the political system. Mr. Kenny and Labour’s Eamon Gilmore concurred that the creation of jobs was the answer, while Sinn Féin’s Gerry Adams drew on the rhetoric of supporting citizens by the creation of a new republic.

Mortgage support was the focus of the next question, the poser observing that mortgage-holders were being pressured by the same banks which had received so much support from the taxpayer. Mr. Martin argued that supporting the banking system was crucial to ensure the 1.8 million workers could still be paid and that businesses could get working capital. Mr. Kenny condemned the waste created by incompetence and lack of regulation on Irish banking, sparking a minor clash between himself and Mr. Martin. Mr. Adams promised that his party was dedicated to protecting the citizen, and that “not one more red cent” would be given to any bank before any restructure of the whole system, leading to a clash with Mr. Martin, who reasoned that Sinn Féin’s leader would make a great host of RTÉ’s “Late Late Show” because of the latter party’s promise to not introduce any further spending cuts, while Mr. Adams retorted that Paul Daniels’ magic skills paled in comparison to Fianna Fáil’s promises. Mr. Gilmore reminded the audience that his party was the only one to oppose the bank guarantee scheme in 2008, and that nationalisation of the banks would have made the government stronger in negotiations with bondholders, while Mr. Gormley observed that lax regulation in the banking system was possible because of corporate donations from banks to all parties, bar his own.

A common concern was how the parties intended to get people back to work. Labour and Fianna Fáil repeated the aims they stated on the TV3 debate last week, while Mr. Adams sought to encourage private enterprises to hire one new employee while encouraging TDs and ministers to lead by example by taking large cuts in their own pay. Mr. Gormley vowed to invest heavily in research and development, before expressing disappointment with his former coalition partner’s new stance on genetically-modified food. Mr. Kenny took time to refer to his party’s manifesto, due to be published on Tuesday morning, while Mr. Martin and Mr. Adams continued to focus assaults on each other, before Mr. Gilmore joined the attack on Mr. Martin, referring to the Fianna Fáil leader as “The Great Pretender”.

The big question came next: who will suffer with the cuts that any new government would have to implement. The Greens’ leader regretted the austere budget introduced in December, but promised not to cut social welfare further, while Sinn Féin’s president argued that those who earn most should pay most. Fine Gael and Labour had a major clash over the former’s budget proposals, leading Mr. Martin to quip how these were two parties looking to be in government together, though Mr. Kenny and Mr. Gilmore were able to reach agreement on the need to reform the social welfare system. The final fall-out was between the Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin leaders over the issue of fraud, with Mr. Martin looking to hammer Sinn Féin over its baggage with fraud in Northern Ireland, while Mr. Adams countered with a litany of Fianna Fáil politicians who were far from squeaky-clean in the fraud department.

On the day when it was revealed that 2010 had the highest number of people stuck on trolleys in hospital wards across the country, the ability to pay for healthcare was the basis of the fifth topic of conversation. The Greens and Sinn Féin agreed that a comprehensive reform of the health service, though Mr. Gormley reasoned that such a move would be extremely costly and would take a long time. Fine Gael and Labour were able to draw a broad agreement on looking to create a universal insurance scheme, which Mr. Gormley offered limited support to. Mr. Martin sought to defend the Health Service Executive which he personally created in 2004, arguing that Fine Gael and Labour moves to restructure the health service was something workers in the sector did not want, before pointing out that the Dutch health insurance programme, which Mr. Kenny and Mr. Gilmore sought to introduce, costs the average Dutch family some €5,000 per annum. Mr. Adams concluded this portion by emphasising his party’s belief that healthcare was a matter of entitlement in a republic.

The final question asked why debates, like Monday’s, focused more on political one-upmanship rather than on policy. There was a general consensus that the adversarial nature of politics was a major factor, while the format of debates made it difficult to avoid tit-for-tat scrapping. I found this an interesting observation, giving that it’s the politicians themselves that determine the format of any leaders’ debates.  The leaders used this final question to emphasise the need for change of some sort, in the economy and in the electoral system.

In the end, no-one delivered a knock-out blow to any of his opponents. Performances were solid all round, with everyone playing it safe: better to not lose than to win. A civil affair, everyone kept their conflicts to a minimum, partly to look reasonable, partly because the format did not lend itself to lengthy comments. Two big clashes were evident, with Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin going at hammer and tongs, an indicator that the two parties are fighting for a core group of voters who are disaffected with Fianna Fáil. Similarly, with Labour and Fine Gael fighting for the same voters, their leaders clashed on occasion, but overall, the size of the panel made it difficult to engage, because each leader had very limited time to answer any of the questions, which covered a broad range of topics, rather than any one particular subject.

Mr. Kenny has reason to be happiest, a solid performance makes him look stronger, and short answers made it harder for him to make any mistakes. Mr. Adams will be pleased that he got his soundbites in, emphasising the broad differences between his party and the establishment parties. Mr. Martin will feel that he put his message across fairly well, but will be more satisfied that he was able to get his digs in at his rival for Republican votes. Mr. Gormley looked like Mr. Agreeable, trying to get on well with everyone and while he will be pleased that he came across as reasonable and open to negotiating in the national interest, the fact that he was largely ignored by the other leaders shows that the Green Party was very much the poor relation at Monday night’s event. His ability to be so honest was refreshing, but he knows he leads a party which is in for a rough time on Friday and Saturday week.

Of all the leaders, Mr. Gilmore has reason to be least happy with the debate, cutting a frustrated figure as the format of the debate and the large size of the panel made it difficult for him to convince the electorate that his party, rather than Mr. Kenny’s, was the better option as the leading group in the next Dáil. With Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin scrapping amongst themselves for third place, and Fine Gael looking to shore up support and not risking losing any voters, Mr. Gilmore was the leader looking to gain the most in the debate, but was unable to, even though his latest show was much improved on his one-on-one debate with Mr. Martin last week.

The final two debates, in Irish on TG4 this Wednesday and the other, in English, taking place next Tuesday, will be a pair of debates between three leaders, rather than five. Mr. Gilmore will be hoping for a better chance to attack his main opponents.