Final TV election debate finishes with a whimper rather than a growl

It was the wolf that did not bark.

As the clock ticked down to the broadcasting moratorium last night, the final TV debate of the election campaign finished with a whimper rather than with a growl.

Five leaders of the smaller parties took part in the RTÉ Prime Time debate, hosted by Miriam O’Callaghan and David McCullagh.

However, after all the froth and interruptions and shoutfests that had occurred during the earlier part of the campaign, the debate on Thursday night was low-key, restrained and – to be honest – insipid.

The format was the same as the dramatic three-way debate on Tuesday night. Twin presenters and a very focused line of questioning.

There were three crucial differences, however, These were the minor parties. There were five of them and not three. And the length of the debate was 40 minutes, rather than 90.

There were two new faces among the five. The first was the leader of Aontú, Peadar Tóibín, who finally got his moment in the limelight. There was also Ruth Coppinger, the third representative of Solidarity-People Before Profit to appear in these debates.

‘The wolf thing’

What killed it was that there was not a huge gulf between any of the parties when it came to the economy or social issues. Tóibín briefly touch on immigration but there was not really time to scrutinise his view on it.

And so we had only one or two interjections, no pregnant pauses, or no massive clangers.

Indeed, the most interesting part of the whole debate was when McCullagh cheekily asked Ryan about reintroducing wolves to Ireland, even if we all knew that idea was abandoned some time ago.

It allowed him to use the line that the wolves would go after “fast-moving venison as opposed to slow-moving mutton.”

It gave him a chance to talk about biodiversity and growing forests that were not monocultural Sitka Spruce but rich in wildlife.

“That’s why I brought up the wolf thing. It’s not going to happen anytime soon.

We all let out a collective sigh of relief.

Ryan’s big pitch was tackling climate change and biodiversity. He was asked about the costing of the manifesto, or more accurately the complete absence of costing. There was not really time to pursue that line.

He had a good line of argument at the start of the world being on fire.

Tóibín’s first run at the pass was about “looking to solve the geographic division”. He said he wanted to create a “balanced spatial delivery of services across the country. ?His argument was that rural Ireland was emptying out and the capital was overheating. But in 30 seconds that argument could not be made.

Quick fade

Brendan Howlin of Labour was succinct. He said he wanted to end the waste of public money, build homes and fix health.

“We are not promising a massive tax giveaway,” he said adding that Labour was being honest.

His only difficult moment came when he was reminded that his plan to create an alliance with the other parties there fell flat on its fact. In reality, it’s likely most of them (with the exception of S-PBP and maybe Aontú) will be in some form of government together.

Shortall was good on Sláintecare and the slow pace of its delivery and said, despite everyone writing the Social Democrats off, it could end up with a chance of winning six or seven seats.

Ruth Coppinger focused on housing and attacked the private landlords and developers.

“We want to use the wealth and resources of society for the benefit of the majority.”

Asked for the alliance’s plan to nationalise the construction industry, and if that meant small builders, she said no, it was only the big guys. If they were nationalising the food industry, she said, they would not be bringing the local chipper into State ownership.

And then before we knew it, it was over, had faded away almost as completely into the obscure as a vulpine bark.