{"id":94306,"date":"2025-09-30T08:18:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T08:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/94306\/"},"modified":"2025-09-30T08:18:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T08:18:09","slug":"candidates-clash-over-gaza-housing-and-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/94306\/","title":{"rendered":"Candidates clash over Gaza, housing and experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

There had been questions about how the debates would go<\/a> and whether the candidates would clash with their opponents.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t take long for an answer, as Fianna F\u00e1il\u2019s Jim Gavin challenged Independent Catherine Connolly early over her comments comparing German rearmament to the 1930s.<\/p>\n

He criticised Ms Connolly, saying countries like Germany and Estonia were ramping up defence spending to protect their sovereignty.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t the only attack of the night, as Ms Connolly later hit back at Mr Gavin over his remarks on Gaza, where he said Israeli military objectives had been met.<\/p>\n

\"PresidentialPresidential candidates: Independent candidate Catherine Connolly, Fianna Fail candidate Jim Gavin, and Fine Gael’s candidate Heather Humphreys, prior to the start of the first presidential debate on The Tonight Show, at Virgin Media Television Studios in Dublin. Picture date: Monday September 29, 2025.<\/p>\n

Government record\u00a0<\/p>\n

With Heather Humphreys serving in Cabinet for a decade, she was always going to defend successive governments\u2019 records on major issues.<\/p>\n

That became a sticking point, with Ms Humphreys coming under fire on housing and direct provision.<\/p>\n

While Mr Gavin also faced questions about government actions, it was to a lesser extent given his position as a newcomer.<\/p>\n

How Ms Humphreys handles these attacks in future debates will be key.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe first televised debate ahead of Ireland’s 2025 presidential election was broadcast by Virgin Media on Monday September 29, 2025. Picture: Harry Burton <\/p>\n

Jim Gavin\u2019s turn to politics<\/p>\n

The former Dublin GAA manager has not been in politics long, only formally receiving the Fianna F\u00e1il nomination this month.<\/p>\n

While Mr Gavin has improved since his early media appearances, many people saw him for the first time tonight and may not be fully convinced.<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t crash and burn in his first major debate, but he will need to step up if he wants to convince the public he is the right person for the presidency.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe first televised debate ahead of Ireland’s 2025 presidential election was broadcast by Virgin Media on Monday September 29, 2025. Picture: Harry Burton <\/p>\n

Connolly faces questions on previous comments\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since entering the presidential race, Catherine Connolly has faced questions about her previous remarks.<\/p>\n

In the past, these focused on Syria and Gemma O\u2019Doherty. On Monday, it was her comparison of the current German government to the 1930s regime over rearmament.<\/p>\n

Ms Connolly defended the remarks, saying it was a criticism of countries using the military-industrial complex to boost their economies.<\/p>\n

The issue is likely to remain, with her pressed again after the debate. However, she does not appear willing to withdraw the comparison.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe first televised debate ahead of Ireland’s 2025 presidential election was broadcast by Virgin Media on Monday September 29, 2025. Picture: Harry Burton <\/p>\n

Geopolitics likely to shape future debates\u00a0<\/p>\n

With global crises dominating headlines, it was no surprise that Gaza and Ukraine featured heavily on Monday evening.<\/p>\n

With talk of a US-led plan to end the Israeli war in Gaza and debate over EU defence building, foreign policy will likely play a central role in future debates.<\/p>\n

We saw glimpses of this tonight as candidates responded to the possibility of a US-led peace plan.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe first televised debate ahead of Ireland’s 2025 presidential election was broadcast by Virgin Media on Monday September 29, 2025. Picture: Harry Burton <\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say domestic issues like housing, immigration, and healthcare won\u2019t matter \u2014 but they may take a slight backseat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There had been questions about how the debates would go and whether the candidates would clash with their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,59,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-94306","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-latest-news","17":"tag-latestnews","18":"tag-main-news","19":"tag-mainnews","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-presidential-election","22":"tag-top-stories","23":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94306","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=94306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}