Editorial: A bloodless debate

Did you watch the first Presidential debate on Monday evening on Virgin Media?

Independent Catherine Connolly, Fianna Fáil's Jim Gavin and Fine Gael's Heather Humphreys took part in the ‘Tonight Show’ Presidential Debate, moderated by Kieran Cuddihy. I did watch it all but if I wasn’t a journalist, I don’t think I’d have managed to stick out the whole thing. It was a largely bland and bloodless affair, with no candidates looking for knockout blows, let alone landing them. Jim Gavin’s lack of experience in this scenario was very clear although he performed better than he had in previous media appearances. He’s clearly been undergoing a lot of media training and his hand gestures closely mirrored that of his party leader Michael Martin. Despite his improved performance, for many people tuning in and seeing him for the first time, they will have witnessed a nervous performance.

Heather Humphreys seemed rather too restrained and passive and was on the back foot a number of times - partly understandable as she had served in the previous government and there was plenty of discussion of the housing crisis.

One of the moments of the night was Cartherine Connolly’s eye rolling when Humphreys suggested 3D printing of houses as a possible solution to the housing crisis. Connolly came across as the most coherent, articulate and passionate and was the clear winner of the debate. She articulated her position clearly on a number of areas such as Gaza and the homelessness and comes out of the debate with momentum. She did mention the ‘military-industrial-complex’ too many times and may not have done much to attract some of the middle-ground voters she will need.

3 candidates does seem too few. It means each candidate will be interrogated unsparingly until 24 October. The debate featured little debating although Connolly did score some points against Gavin, after she questioned whether he believed the Israel Defence Forces had achieved their military goals referencing comments he previously made. “Were they achieved when 20,000 were dead, “or 30,000?” she asked.

A presidential debate is a strange beast since the role is apolitical and without executive power. Is it really relevant asking them their views on homelessness, for example, when the President has no impact upon housing policy? Well, it’s still important to know their views on different topics as they will represent the Irish people and we know little enough about some of them.

Former Dublin GAA manager Jim Gavin’s views on nearly everything are unknown as he has not been a politician. And that’s no impediment to being president but failing to speak fluently in public is. He has much to prove over the next few weeks.