We had a special edition of Morning Focus today as we were joined by 14 of the General Election Candidates for a live debate on issues which have been raised by our listeners in The Falls Hotel and Spa in Ennistymon.
This Sunday, The Falls will be the count centre for Clare in General Election 2020, but today it was the site for the last of our General Election debates. You’ve heard from candidates in mini-debates to-date – but today, fourteen of the people seeking your number 1 this Saturday will face off as we debated a number of key election issues which have been chosen by you.
Fourteen candidates joined us this morning. Clare FM has made several offers to Renua’s Conor O’Brien to appear on the show or on our debates since his candidacy was announced, but both Mr O’Brien and his party have declined those offers.
So, joining us today were – in alphabetical order:
– David Barrett, Independent
– Pat Breen, Fine Gael
– Joe Carey, Fine Gael
– Martin Conway, Fine Gael
– Cathal Crowe, Fianna Fail
– Timmy Dooley, Fianna Fail
– Roisin Garvey, Green Party
– Michael Leahy, Irish Freedom Party
– Trudy Ann Leyden, Independent
– Rita McInerney, Fianna Fail
– Michael McNamara, Independent
– Theresa O’Donohoe, Solidarity People Before Profit
– Joseph Woulfe, Independent
– Violet-Anne Wynne, Sinn Féin
The topics that we discussed this morning had been chosen by you. We began the debate by asking each candidate- If you are successfully elected to Dáil Eireann this Saturday, what will be your main priority? Candidates were given thirty seconds each to answer that opening question.
The first topic up for debate was Mental Health. We played a clip from a video from well known Ennis woman Tina Whelan whose video about a man who presented as suicidal at a number of hospitals and was discharged soon after went viral last week as Tina gave us permission to use an extract from that video where she addresses the candidates of this election.
Candidates were chosen to speak at random, first Pat asked the Solidarity People Before Profit candidate, Theresa O’Donohoe to respond to that extract from Tina.
Next, we continued the debate by discussing the health sector. We heard from a lady called Mary as she addressed the candidates with her issues regarding healthcare.
Following on from that we spoke about an issue raised by a Clare FM listener. Tom in Ennis contacted us by text to say: ‘What will influence his vote most is the way the out-going government neglected and over-regulated rural Ireland with its Dublin based bias. This led to isolation, the decline of shops, pubs, employment and spirit in every town and village throughout the country.’ We posed this statement to our candidates addressing Pat Breen firstly.
Welcome back to the Falls Hotel in Ennistymon and to the second hour of our final General Election 2020 debate.
This Sunday, this hotel will be the count centre for the Clare constituency, but this morning I have fourteen of the fifteen candidates seeking your first preference vote in front of me to debate topics chosen by you.
Then we highlighted the latest report from Daft.ie which shows that rental prices have increased by 7.9% in this constituency. Housing is one of the main election issues that’s raised by Morning Focus listeners, we asked candidates what they’re going to do to tackle the housing problem. We began by asking Róisín Garvey, Green Party what she would do.
Another issue which has been raised by our listners is the use of posters during an election. This question came from Donnacha. A number of areas within this constituency asked for a voluntary poster ban at the outset of this campaign – yet we’ve seen them up regardless. When candidates are promoting a greener Ireland – why are we still seeing the use of plastics that take four hundred years to degrade? Fianna Fáil’s Cathal Crowe began this discussion.
Now to the final part of our debate, where our candidates addressed the issue of agriculture. Welcome back to the final part of our pre-General Election debate. We heard from Clare FM listener, Brendan.
We saw the leaders of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael’s joined by Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald on RTÉ’s leader’s debate last night. The broadcaster’s decision to exclude Sinn FÉin was drawn back on Monday as they rose in the polls.
Last night, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael continued to reject the prospect of doing business with Sinn Féin – despite Monday’s Irish Times/MRBI poll putting Sinn Féin at the top of the poll at 25%, followed by Fianna Fáil at 23% and Fine Gael at 20%.
We posed this notion to Sinn Féin’s Violet-Anne Wynne.
To conclude the debate, each candidate had a 30-second opportunity to provide a closing statement.
We want to wish all candidates the best of luck and say thank you to all of them for attending today’s debate. They go to the polls this Saturday and we will be back in Ennistymon this Sunday for live coverage of the count.
If you missed this mornings debate, you can listen back below:
