{"id":95813,"date":"2025-10-01T00:25:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T00:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/95813\/"},"modified":"2025-10-01T00:25:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T00:25:11","slug":"what-catherine-connolly-heather-humphreys-and-jim-gavin-said-in-first-tv-debate-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/95813\/","title":{"rendered":"What Catherine Connolly, Heather Humphreys and Jim Gavin said in first TV debate \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first televised presidential<\/a> debate between Independent Catherine Connolly<\/a>, Fianna F\u00e1il\u2019s Jim Gavin<\/a> and Fine Gael\u2019s Heather Humphreys<\/a> took place on Virgin Media on Monday night. <\/p>\n

Here is a flavour of some quotes from the three hopefuls.<\/p>\n

Independent Catherine Connolly <\/b><\/p>\n

On Germany\u2019s military spending: \u201cAs a mother, as a TD, and as a candidate in this election I am extremely worried about the military industrial complex that\u2019s building up, particularly in Europe, Germany<\/a> just being one of the examples because they\u2019ve actually said it very openly, that that\u2019s what their economy needs and it\u2019s a boost to their economy.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s certainly a threat posed by Russia<\/a>. But in terms of meeting that threat, we should be using diplomatic approaches. We should be trying for peace. We\u2019re a neutral country, and we should be using our voice, small and all as we are, we should be using our voice to push for peace. And you know, when we look at the military industrial complex … and we see countries reducing their welfare budget. Choices are being made while poverty rises.\u201d <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Catherine Connolly should keep her inner Basil Fawlty under wrapsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a presidential election, and I\u2019m an independent candidate. I made my decision because it was the right decision … I didn\u2019t base it on party support, nor on the money I add. Obviously party support is very welcome. I\u2019ve made that clear. But as an independent candidate, I\u2019m not a part of any party but I welcome and it is momentous and historical that the parties have come together to give a new vision for this country, precisely when we need it.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThe language of division and saying the country is full is abhorrent. It\u2019s just abhorrent to everything I stand for. However, a vacuum has arisen to a certain extent in Irish society … that vacuum has allowed for certain voices to be raised very loudly … that allows this particular group to turn their anger in the wrong way and on the wrong people and the use of the symbol [of the tricolour] in the wrong manner.\u201d<\/p>\n

[To Jim Gavin] \u201cAt what point did Israel<\/a> achieve its military objectives? When 20,000 were dead, when 30,000 were dead? You made the comment.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI would hope there is a united Ireland within my term of president.\u201d <\/p>\n

Fianna F\u00e1il\u2019s Jim Gavin <\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a geopolitical crisis, there is a war ongoing in Ukraine<\/a> … There\u2019s a war on the eastern border of Europe. Each country has a choice to make, to defend their democracy, to defend their sovereignty. That is a given right. I\u2019m sure the German government could be spending their money elsewhere in welfare, but what choice do they have? What choice do Estonia have, Latvia have? They need to protect their sovereignty.\u201d <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Presidential election: Jim Gavin says Government performance on housing \u2018not good enough\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you follow the policy of the triple lock that we have now, that Catherine supports, we won\u2019t have any peacekeeping. There has been no peacekeeping mission approved since 2014. That\u2019s 11 years being vetoed by Russia and other member states. I\u2019m proud of neutrality. I wore the uniform of peacekeeping on behalf of the Defence Forces<\/a>, I proudly served with \u00d3glaigh na h\u00c9ireann. I wore the blue helmet. I wore the flak jacket. I\u2019ve seen the benefits of our peacekeeping role and our neutrality and how well that was respected in Africa and the Middle East and other nations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not here to defend the Government, I\u2019m here to support the Defence Commission in terms of investing in the people I\u2019m very proud of, and Irish people are very proud of our Defence Forces.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have a right to put the [tricolour] flag where they want … for me that flag speaks to inclusion and people have a right to put the flag where they so choose to.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is simply not good enough and the Government need to do more [on the housing crisis<\/a>]. I\u2019m the parent of two teenage kids. I\u2019m at a loss as to how they will get a house in a couple of years\u2019 time … The president can\u2019t build houses. What the president can do is keep highlighting the issues of society, and the issue of housing will be the defining issue of our leaders in Government, that we elected, not our president.\u201d <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Heather Humphreys and Jim Gavin will waive pension entitlements if they win presidential electionOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Fine Gael\u2019s Heather Humphreys<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cIn relation to Germany, we saw on Saturday night there were thousands of drones bombarded a city in Ukraine. If it hadn\u2019t been for the defences that Germany had put in there \u2013 four people were killed \u2013 thousands of people would have been killed. The aggressor here is Russia and Europe has to defend itself. We really do.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThere has been increased investment [in the Defence Forces] over the years and we need more, it\u2019s as simple as that.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a disaster for the people who can\u2019t get houses. They are putting their lives on hold, they\u2019re putting off making decisions because they can\u2019t get a house. I know a lot of effort and a lot of money has gone in to try to solve this problem. The bottom line is we need to see results and we need to see more houses being built and this needs to happen, it needs to happen now.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Government I was part of did achieve many things … I have to accept that we did not achieve all that we should have achieved in housing … It\u2019s a complex problem. Every Minister for Housing did their best, they really tried, but we did not achieve what we wanted to achieve.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe in a united Ireland. I\u2019m a proud Ulster woman and I\u2019m a proud republican in the same way as the United Irishmen of 1798 and Henry John McCracken … We need to work towards uniting people first. As John Hume said, you must unite people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first televised presidential debate between Independent Catherine Connolly, Fianna F\u00e1il\u2019s Jim Gavin and Fine Gael\u2019s Heather Humphreys…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95814,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,1921,9217,18,13,14,6621,6,555,8752,19,17,71,19487,11,12,15,16,5,59,550,7,8,2264],"class_list":{"0":"post-95813","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-defence-forces","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-featured-news","14":"tag-featurednews","15":"tag-germany","16":"tag-headlines","17":"tag-heather-humphreys","18":"tag-housing-crisis","19":"tag-ie","20":"tag-ireland","21":"tag-israel","22":"tag-jim-gavin","23":"tag-latest-news","24":"tag-latestnews","25":"tag-main-news","26":"tag-mainnews","27":"tag-news","28":"tag-presidential-election","29":"tag-russia","30":"tag-top-stories","31":"tag-topstories","32":"tag-ukraine-crisis"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95813","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=95813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}