Viewers have slammed a “car crash” of a debate for Ireland’s first directly elected mayor election on Upfront with Katie Hannon on RTÉ One on Monday night.
All 15 candidates for the history-making election were invited to the late-night politics show on Monday night to go head to head as they delivered their stance on housing, healthcare, transport, sustainability and more for Limerick city.
The show was split into two parts, with two separate panels of candidates debating each other, as with the recent debate in Limerick’s TUS last week, with eight battling it out in the first half, and seven in the second.
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Prior to the debate kicking off on Monday, there was controversy surrounding the programming, with RTÉ initially proposing that eight candidates would take part in the exchange of views, while the other candidates would take a seat in the audience, making a short one-minute contribution at some point in the show.
Following backlash about the format by the public and candidates, RTÉ made a u-turn on its decision, instead allowing all 15 candidates to take part in the landmark debate.
More than 200 people attended the debate on Monday night in the Lime Tree Theatre in Limerick, which heard from Labour’s Cllr Conor Sheehan, Fianna Fáil's Dee Ryan, Independent Frankie Daly, Green Party's Brian Leddin, People Before Profit's Ruairí Fahy, Sinn Féin's Maurice Quinlivan, Social Democrats' Cllr Elisa O'Donovan, Fine Gael's Daniel Butler, Independent Colm O Morain, Aontú's Sarah Beasley, Independent Gerben Uunk, Independent Helen O'Donnell, Socialist Party's Caitríona Ní Chaitháin, Independent John Moran and Rabharta’s Dr Laura Keyes.
Candidates were asked questions put forward by the audience, as well as Katie Hannon. Housing was the central issue to crop up over and over again throughout the debate, as well as the ongoing emergency room problem at University Hospital Limerick. Transport and improved infrastructure were also key points among the candidates, alongside agriculture and the environment.
While each candidate was given a chance to put across their viewpoint and answer questions, many viewers blasted the short length of time given to each candidate as Katie Hannon zipped through questions.
One person wrote: “It's a horrendous format for a debate regarding complicated and important matters for the city, two mins to answer a question. Candidates are stuck between selling themselves and giving clear detailed answers. No one wins really”.
Another penned: “Jesus Christ. Car crash TV! Seconds to speak. Seconds to get your point across. No debate, just sound bites. God help the voter who relied on this programme to make up their minds. Do your own research and decide. Limerick deserves better than this.”
Replying to this post, a third added: “Totally agree the whole show was a shambles. No debate. Limerick deserves more.”
There was also some criticism that the debate did look deeply at issues relating the wider county of Limerick, instead focusing on issues related mainly to the city.
One wrote: “Dear Limerick mayor candidates, the bit inside the red line here is county limerick, consisting of 100k pop. Apparently, you will also be Mayor of both city and county. Not that you’d know it from tonight’s debate on RTE UpFront. Did the county even get two minutes' worth of air time?”
Some of the candidates shared the sentiment that two minutes was not enough time to deliver a robust response. Fine Gael Councillor, and former mayor, Daniel Butler, said he felt candidates did not have enough time to say their piece.
He said in a video on X: “I was kind of disappointed in terms of how little time we had to get into detail because we really need to see the detail behind what people are saying, they don’t see how much knowledge was there in the group”.
You can listen to the full debate here, or watch it on RTÉ Player. The election for directly elected mayor takes place on June 7; you can read more about the election here.
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