![\"Heather](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/00233ea2-614.jpg\"\/)
\nHeather Humphreys was continually asked about Fine Gael’s record in government<\/p>\n
The first debate has come and gone and the dust is settling. But who will be happiest with their performance and has any candidate moved the dial? Here are 7 takeaways from last night’s debate from Political Correspondent Paul Cunningham.<\/p>\n
1. Opener<\/p>\n
Each candidate was given a minute to introduce themselves to voters.<\/p>\n
Catherine Connolly spoke first and, notably, used Irish – the only candidate who is fluent.<\/p>\n
Heather Humphreys mentioned the power of women “holding things together” – an echo of her campaign launch in Monaghan and a clear pitch to half the electorate.<\/p>\n
Jim Gavin appeared to place himself as the unity candidate, a team builder who is determined, active and positive.<\/p>\n
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2. Offence or defence<\/p>\n
Jim Gavin decided to go for it from the off, tackling Catherine Connolly over comments she made about Germany increasing its defence force spending.<\/p>\n
He claimed there won’t be any more peacekeeping missions if Ms Connolly’s policies were adopted.<\/p>\n
It was a risky tactic. The split screen used effectively by Virgin Media meant that it was possible to see her rejection of the claims just by the look on her face.<\/p>\n
Ms Connolly had a go at Heather Humphreys over direct provision, saying the Government had utterly failed.<\/p>\n
Over-all though, the candidates prioritised getting their own message out rather than trying to bait their opponents.<\/p>\n
3. The record in Cabinet<\/p>\n
A big challenge for Heather Humphreys over the next four weeks is not to get sucked into defending every Coalition decision – particularly glaring problems like homelessness.<\/p>\n
This was a problem throughout the debate, as Kieran Cuddihy peppered her with questions about Fine Gael’s record.<\/p>\n
\nHeather Humphreys was continually asked about Fine Gael’s record in government<\/p>\n
It started with the underfunding of the Defence Forces and continued on the safety of the capital’s streets.<\/p>\n
When asked a question over immigration, she pivoted back to the role of president but that wasn’t possible to execute all the time.<\/p>\n
4. The novice<\/p>\n
The candidate who had something to prove was Jim Gavin, as he was the person with no experience of being on a political panel on a live TV programme.<\/p>\n
He was stumbling over his words at times but his performance was more assured than might have been expected.<\/p>\n
At times he found the debate to be tricky, particularly when Catherine Connolly asked him when he believed the Israel Defence Forces had achieved their military targets – a reference to comments he made previously.<\/p>\n
In reply, he spoke about how Israel was committing war crimes, but didn’t answer the question directly.<\/p>\n
![\"Jim](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/00233e9e-614.jpg\"\/)
\nJim Gavin was pressed on his comments on Israel achieving military targets<\/p>\n
5. Clarifying<\/p>\n
A feature of Catherine Connolly’s presidential campaign to date has been making statements and then being called-on to clarify what she said.<\/p>\n
The programme began with one such issue: her claim that Germany was trying to revitalise its economy through its military industrial complex.<\/p>\n
Kieran Cuddihy had to intervene to mention Russia’s invasion of Ukraine being the reason for the move.<\/p>\n
After that issue, however, she grew in strength, with cogent arguments which were clearly articulated.<\/p>\n
6. Tricky moments<\/p>\n
In most TV debates there is a telling moment: a verbal exchange, a slap-down or a quip. This time there wasn’t a killer line or a devastating put-down.<\/p>\n
Each of the candidates did endure a tricky moment.<\/p>\n
![\"Catherine](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/00233e9c-614.jpg\"\/)
\nCatherine Connolly was asked to clarify remarks about Germany’s military industrial complex<\/p>\n
At one point, Heather Humphreys wondered aloud if the Occupied Territories Bill would make any difference, before saying she supported it – even if it had a negative economic impact.<\/p>\n
Jim Gavin said that the level of immigration over the past three years is unsustainable and needs to be tackled – something which is not Fianna F\u00e1il policy.<\/p>\n
Catherine Connolly seemed to be unsure of her policy footing at the end of the debate on the issue of a united Ireland.<\/p>\n
7. Winners and Losers<\/p>\n
There was no knock-out moment, however Heather Humphreys seemed to find the debate the most difficult due to continually being tied to Fine Gael failures in government.<\/p>\n
Jim Gavin performed better than expected, even if his delivery was clumsy at times and used too many hand gestures.<\/p>\n
If there was a winner, it was Catherine Connolly who knew what she wanted to say and delivered it best.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first debate has come and gone and the dust is settling. But who will be happiest with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-52156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}