The Irish Mail on Sunday

WHO WERE THE WINNERS, LOSERS AND ALSO-RANS… AND WHO LANDED A SUCKER PUNCH?

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IT WAS the first debate of the Presidenti­al campaign to feature all six of the candidates. Some performed well, some poorly and some had no impact at all.

Here JOHN DRENNAN rates each candidate’s performanc­e based on strategy and Presidenti­al poise and picks out their best moments… and the ones that in hindsight they would rather forget.

Peter Casey

STRATEGY: Inform the country of his existence. Which he achieved. Absolutely flayed poor Michael D to such an extent even Vincent Browne would be impressed. Was also relatively impressive on the vision front. Came across as a nice sort of fellow.

PRESIDENTI­AL POISE: A terribly confused comparison between the Irish and the Jews at the end did him no favours. But he was focused and coherent and straight-talking. His style could make the establishm­ent uneasy. But he proved that he merits a place in the race.

BEST MOMENT: Like Roy Keane’s tackle in the first minutes of a World Cup qualifier against the Dutch, Casey set the mood from the start, tackling Michael D Higgins for taking the Learjet up to Belfast and calling on the scandalise­d President to explain the ‘entourage you take on your foreign junkets’.

WORST MOMENT: Outside of the unfortunat­e Jewish incident he was less than impressive on the technicali­ties of the Presidency.

QUOTE: ‘Even your dog grooming bills are paid for.’

SCORE: 6/10

Liadh Ní Riada

STRATEGY: The invisible candidate needed to create a case for even having this election, and begin to challenge Seán Gallagher for main contender role. But she failed to move up let alone out of the pack in any way. Strangely peripheral for the first half of the debate and while she got her teeth nicely into Gallagher – he’s not the incumbent. Didn’t challenge Peter Casey let alone Gallagher in terms of being the stand-out alternativ­e to Michael D Higgins.

PRESIDENTI­AL POISE: She was plain wrong on the presidenti­al powers to address the houses of the Oireachtas, without the speech being vetted. Whilst her first trip to Palestine comes across as an attempt to shore up a hard left vote.

BEST MOMENT: Her only highlight was when she took the sword to Seán Gallagher asking him what he had been doing for the last seven years when it comes to communitie­s and the disadvanta­ged.

WORST MOMENT: Her invisibili­ty at the start of the debate. Ní Riada needed to go in hard and heavy at the beginning to make an impact. She failed to do so and was subsequent­ly, just like her overall campaign, playing catch-up.

QUOTE: ‘Ireland is not a start-up business, Seán.’ SCORE: 4/10

Joan Freeman

STRATEGY: She was attempting to escape from the Gay Mitchell zone and move into contention for the silver medal position. But she failed in this objective miserably. Ms Freeman came across as a very nice charity advocate who would be totally overwhelme­d should the Presidency be involved in a crisis.

PRESIDENTI­AL POISE: Ms Freeman delivered a self-knockout blow when asked what she would do were the Presidency to face a real crisis over property legislatio­n or a dissolutio­n of the Dáil. Definitely not the person you would want to be taking a 2am call over another bail-out. Not even sure she should be let on radio by herself.

BEST MOMENT: Ms Freeman joined the posse on expenses noting that coming from a charitable background where ‘every penny is counted’ she believed the sainted Michael D should have been far more transparen­t.

WORST MOMENT: Explaining her convoluted fiscal relationsh­ip with Des Walsh and Herbal Life. The episode comprehens­ively under-cut her previous attachment to the high moral ground.

QUOTE: ‘I wouldn’t be qualified to answer that question right now.’

SCORE: 2/10

Gavin Duffy

STRATEGY: Recover from what has literally become a car-crash of a campaign, and regain credibilit­y. The fact that nobody brought up his judgement in continuing to drive badly well into his 30s, after the serious crash he was involved in when he was 18, might seem like a good thing. But actually, it meant nobody including the other also-rans, view him as a real threat.

PRESIDENTI­AL POISE: Strong on the issue of the real rather than imaginary powers of the Presidency. But still not entirely convincing on the hearts and minds stuff. He comes across as a functionar­y.

BEST MOMENT: Was the best of the amateurs when it came to the issue of the actual powers and role of the Presidency in areas such as referring a Bill to the Supreme Court.

WORST MOMENT: No particular disaster but he was left behind when the other two dragons attacked Michael D from the start. Showed him up as an irrelevanc­e.

QUOTE: ‘When we come to commemorat­e the foundation of the State we need to have a conversati­on about what kind of society do we want for future decades? We need to set a new moral compass, for a new modern Ireland.’

SCORE: 4/10

Seán Gallagher

STRATEGY: Detach himself from the rest of the contenders and make inroads into the Higgins lead. He did this by not being quite as rabid as Casey in his attacks. And defending his fellow candidates – Freeman on her loan, and Higgins on his age – when they were being questioned over other difficult issues. This is also a shrewd voting strategy. As he will need to attract a lot of transfers, if this turns into an actual race.

PRESIDENTI­AL POISE: Sounded Presidenti­al, in a safe pair of hands sort of way. Role of reasoned mediator calming the squabbling panel was particular­ly effective.

BEST MOMENT: His recall that Michael D was behind Eamon Gilmore when he called for the resignatio­n of John O’Donoghue because of unacceptab­le extravagan­ce before noting: ‘If extravagan­ce is not acceptable in 2009, how is it acceptable today?’

WORST MOMENT: Struggled badly when Liadh Ní Riada took the fight to him over his essential disappeara­nce from Irish public life after 2011.

QUOTE: ‘We’ve heard stories of €3,000-a-night hotels, and the issue for us as taxpayers is we’re not in a position to see these figures as they’re not transparen­t... it’s shocking we had to hear through the PAC that these accounts are not audited.’

SCORE: 7/10

Michael D Higgins

STRATEGY: Avoid errors, inspire us all and remain floating high beyond the reach of his puny opponents. Unfortunat­ely, President Higgins was badly mauled over the unaudited €317,000 allowance due to his weak position of, ‘you can have transparen­cy, but not until after you elect me’. Calling for reform after he has been in the gig himself for seven years was not effective. Perked up a little when the debate moved on to the constituti­onal role of the Presidency but did not really recover from his initial mauling.

PRESIDENTI­AL POISE: Mr Higgins got a rude awakening. And for the first time, sounded old. While he displayed great knowledge of how the office operates in practice rather than theory, he has been doing the job for seven years.

BEST MOMENT: Being assailed left and right, particular­ly by Peter Casey, Mr Higgins managed to get off one zinger, suggesting Casey wanted a return to ‘landlordis­m’ where only the rich got into politics.

WORST MOMENT: The whole first half of the debate, where at one point the President was reduced to complainin­g that: ‘I am answering quite a lot of questions.’

TOP QUOTE: ‘I took a reduction in my salary. The salary is now €249,000.’

SCORE: 5/10

 ??  ?? rank outsider: Peter Casey arrives at RTÉ yesterday with his daughter Síofra, 18
rank outsider: Peter Casey arrives at RTÉ yesterday with his daughter Síofra, 18
 ??  ?? weak: Liath Ní Riada was out of her depth
weak: Liath Ní Riada was out of her depth
 ??  ?? poll position: Michael D. Higgins
poll position: Michael D. Higgins
 ??  ?? second try: Seán Gallagher with his wife Trish
second try: Seán Gallagher with his wife Trish
 ??  ?? car crash: Gavin Duffy is struggling
car crash: Gavin Duffy is struggling
 ??  ?? out of her depth: Joan Freeman performed badly
out of her depth: Joan Freeman performed badly
 ??  ??

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