The Editor of Cavan's Anglo Celt newspaper has described last night's election debate as "very ambitious." Three parties took centre stage in the first leaders’ debate of the election campaign last night - despite 10 taking part. The debate on RTÉ was billed as the largest of its kind in Irish television history - but saw smaller parties struggle to get a word in. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil accused Sinn Féin of being unfit to govern - while the main opposition party highlighted the government’s failure to address the housing crisis or spending overruns. Outgoing Taoiseach Simon Harris tried to deflect the blame when asked about the National Children’s Hospital.
Speaking on this morning's Joe Finnegan Show, Linda O'Reilly, said she "admires" what they tried to do by including a total of ten parties. Despite this, she believes the debate included "too many people" with "too many issues to cover." Linda explained; "I admire what they were trying to do. The debate was a very ambitious with a sense of tokenism about it as the first hour was completely dominated by the three main political parties. For me there was too many people with too many issues to cover."