{"id":121758,"date":"2025-10-14T16:32:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T16:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/121758\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T16:32:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T16:32:08","slug":"five-takeaways-from-the-latest-debate-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/121758\/","title":{"rendered":"five takeaways from the latest debate \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Presidential election<\/a> candidates Catherine Connolly<\/a> and Heather Humphreys<\/a> have clashed again in the latest presidential debate. Refereed by Newstalk<\/a> radio\u2019s Pat Kenny, the pair sparred on a wide range of issues. Here are five takeaways:<\/p>\n

1. Connolly targets Humphreys as \u2018Government candidate\u2019<\/p>\n

Fine Gael candidate Humphreys\u2019s 10 years as a senior minister is seen as a vulnerability by her opponents. Left-wing Independent Connolly sought to use this in the debate, saying: \u201cWe need a voice in the presidency that\u2019s not more of the same from a Government … Unfortunately, Heather is a Government candidate\u201d. Humphreys endeavoured to portray this political experience as a positive. She said she \u201cstepped up\u201d and served in government and \u201cI\u2019ve never had the advantage of being able to stand on the opposition benches and say exactly what I wanted to say.\u201d She said she took \u201chard decisions and I have a proud record\u201d, citing her introduction of hot meals in primary schools and her development of the auto-enrolment system \u201cthat means people will have a pension\u201d.<\/p>\n

2. Humphreys on the attack over rival\u2019s controversial former staffer<\/p>\n

Connolly has been dogged with questions for two weeks over her hiring of a woman convicted of a firearms offence, Ursula N\u00ed Shionn\u00e1in \u2013 who was also an activist with socialist republic party \u00c9irig\u00ed \u2013 to work in Leinster House in 2019. N\u00ed Shionn\u00e1in was convicted in February 2014 along with three others. She had pleaded not guilty to the possession of arms and ammunition but did not offer a defence. She was found guilty and given a six-year sentence. After her early release Connolly employed her and signed her into Leinster House over a period of six months while Garda clearance was awaited. Humphreys referred to N\u00ed Shionn\u00e1in\u2019s conviction for her possession of guns and asked Connolly: \u201cDid you ever ask her what she was going to do with them? I think that\u2019s a reasonable question.\u201d Connolly deflected replying: \u201cI think the reasonable question is what is our opinion on rehabilitation.\u201d She added: \u201cAre we going to double and trebly punish people?\u201d. She also insisted that \u201cno rules were broken, absolutely none\u201d. Connolly earlier insisted N\u00ed Shionn\u00e1in was \u201can absolute example of a success story in relation to rehabilitation\u201d.<\/p>\n

3. The Fine Gael candidate also faced tough questions<\/p>\n

As reported by The Irish Times, Lucia O\u2019Farrell, the mother of hit-and-run victim Shane O\u2019Farrell, has said in recent weeks she was \u201cterribly disappointed\u201d that Humphreys did not support the Monaghan family\u2019s campaign for a public inquiry into failings in the criminal justice system surrounding her son\u2019s death. Shane O\u2019Farrell died in 2011 after being knocked off his bike by a man who had multiple convictions and was driving the car while out on bail. Earlier this year the O\u2019Farrell family were offered a State apology for failings in the criminal justice system. Humphreys said she spoke to Lucia O\u2019Farrell on a number of occasions, that \u201cmy heart was broken for her\u201d and she did make representations on her behalf. She echoed previous remarks saying: \u201cI\u2019m sorry if she thinks I didn\u2019t do enough, I did my best, and I\u2019m glad that she has got a State apology.\u201d Kenny put it to Humphreys that O\u2019Farrell had been in touch with Newstalk to say that the \u201csorry if\u201d framing of the candidate\u2019s remarks was \u201cnot good enough\u201d. Humphreys repeated: \u201cI\u2019m sorry if she feels I didn\u2019t do enough to help her. I did my best.\u201d<\/p>\n

4. Connolly would not answer yes or no on whether she represented banks in repossession cases<\/p>\n

Last week Connolly responded to questions from The Irish Times saying she took on \u201call types of work\u201d during her previous career as a barrister, but would not say if she acted in property repossession cases when working for banks. Repeatedly asked to confirm whether work on behalf of financial institutions included home repossessions, she said barristers had an obligation to take on work for clients. Kenny took up the questioning, asking: \u201cit\u2019s a yes or no answer. Have you represented the banks against people who lost their homes?\u201d. Connolly replied: \u201cI have represented banks. I have represented people who have had orders of possession against them.\u201d Kenny put it to her that her response was \u201ca yes\u201d and repeated the question. She said: \u201cI have represented lots of people in my career as a barrister.\u201d She insisted barristers are \u201cobliged to represent people\u201d and said: \u201cThe essence of our system is an independent bar.\u201d Put to her again that the answer to the question that she had represented banks in repossession cases was yes ,she replied: \u201cThe answer to the question is I represented lots of different people.\u201d<\/p>\n

5. Both candidates are open to giving up \u00c1ras land for other uses<\/p>\n

Kenny suggested that 130 acres of land at presidential residence \u00c1ras an Uachtar\u00e1in was \u201ctoo much\u201d and 100 acres could be given up for recreational use. Humphreys said the 130 acres is \u201cnot what\u2019s attracting me to this job\u201d. She said the \u00c1ras is \u201cthe people\u2019s house\u201d and she is sure the land is \u201cput to good use\u201d by the Office of Public Works but \u201cif people want to reduce the size that\u2019s fine with me\u201d. Connolly said it is a \u201cwonderful asset for the people of Ireland\u201d, saying she will be exploring possibilities in terms of biodiversity projects, and an \u201casylum in the true sense of the word, for people to enjoy the 130 acres\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Presidential election candidates Catherine Connolly and Heather Humphreys have clashed again in the latest presidential debate. Refereed by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119151,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,1921,18,13,14,6,555,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,5287,24320,59,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-121758","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-catherine-connolly","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-heather-humphreys","16":"tag-ie","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-latest-news","19":"tag-latestnews","20":"tag-main-news","21":"tag-mainnews","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-newstalk-radio","24":"tag-pat-kenny","25":"tag-presidential-election","26":"tag-top-stories","27":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}