Significant election is almost here

We’ve had weeks of debates, weeks of campaigning and weeks of promises. Are you sick of it yet?

I missed some of the RTÉ ‘Prime Time’ debate on Tuesday night between Fine Gael’s Leo Varadkaar, Fianna Fáil’s Micheál Martin and Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald.

It promised so much after the sensational Irish Times/IPOS opinion poll which was revealed on Monday night. It had Sinn Féin as the most popular party in the country at 25 per cent. Fianna Fáil trailed them at 23 per cent and had Fine Gael at 20 per cent.

The Sinn Féin surge is real and momentum was continuing. The late decision by RTÉ to allow the Sinn Féin leader to be part of the debate seemed to add to that surge.

But what will the effect of the debate be on election day on Saturday? Mary Lou McDonald is an excellent debater, possibly the best among the party leaders.

She wasn’t quite at her best on Tuesday night. The other two leaders seemed to take turns attacking her, and although she landed a few punches, she certainly took a few more.

Sinn Féin have achieved an incredible turnaround from their poor showing in the 2018 Presidential election when Cork woman Liadh Ni Riada was Sinn Féin’s candidate receiving 6.38 per cent of first preference votes.

After last May’s European and local elections, the party went from 159 council seats to 81 and lost two of its three MEPs - Lynn Boylan and Liadh Ni Riada.

They licked their wounds, re-assessed and changed tack. Their previous negative campaigning only worked to a limited extent and now Sinn Féin is far more positive and offers solutions. And they offer true change, and it seems clear that there is a strong appetite in the country for change.

That is something that Fianna Fáil cannot really offer, given that they lead the last non-Fine Gael government and that they propped up the last government, meaning they are tainted by association.

Questions will still remain about Sinn Féin’s structures, even though the party denies that outside influences affect decision making.

That Sinn Féin has indicated that it will talk to all parties about forming a government is intriguing. It could be that it could end up in a no lose situation.

The positives in all this are that people are still tuning in to all these debates, they are still interested in and believe in our democracy.

We cannot take our young democracy for granted.

A recent report by Cambridge University has highlighted just how positive Ireland ranks worldwide on our contentedness on democracy. Ireland is the fifth most content country out of 65 democracies worldwide. Ireland was one of only two English-speaking countries, where satisfaction with democracy had not declined since the 1990s. So, we are unusual in that we are broadly happy with our democracy. Let’s be proud that our democracy remains strong while being vigilant that it isn’t undermined.

And I would encourage everyone to get out and vote in the General Election on Saturday. Let the people speak!