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EVERY NIGHT DURING the general election, TheJournal.ie brings you the latest from the Election 2016 campaign trail.
Everybody’s talking about
By his own admission Gerry Adams isn’t good at maths. Last year, the Sinn Féin leader told us this isn’t a problem, but for a party that wants to be taken seriously as an alternative to the current government it really is. Sinn Féin scored an early campaign win with its fiscal space success, but much of that work was arguably undone by two poor interviews Adams did on RTÉ today.
This morning he clashed repeatedly with Seán O’Rourke during a tetchy interview on Radio 1 where the Louth TD seemed to struggle on the details of the party’s economics proposals. This evening, he faced similar difficulties on the Six One News where Bryan Dobson was the interviewer.
At one point, Adams claimed that anyone earning less than €100,000 would not be impacted by Sinn Féin’s tax plans. This is not true when you examine the proposed changes to pension tax reliefs which will impact people earning as low as €50,000. Even Adams attempt to goad Dobson by asking if he earns over €100,000 fell flat as the experienced broadcaster admitted, without missing a beat, that he does.
Details matter, leaders must show competence on issues like this. It’s why Enda Kenny was widely criticised for claiming on day one of the campaign that the people don’t understand “economic jargon” when it was clear he struggled with it himself.
Adams is held to no greater a test than any other party leader, and on the numbers he consistently comes up short.
Slap Down of the Day
There were quite a few today so we picked two.
Ouch.
FactCheck of the Day
As part of our general election coverage, we’re testing the truth of claims made by candidates and parties on the campaign trail. Tonight, Dan MacGuill has looked at whether Fine Gael is right to say it has maintained disability spending?
Bull**** Claim of the Day
Michael Noonan has clearly been inhabiting a parallel universe for the last two weeks.
Row of the Day
Can we trust Fianna Fáil to run the economy and the country again?
That was the central question in our latest High Table Election Debate between Fianna Fáil’s Jim O’Callaghan and Fine Gael’s Noel Rock.
WTF Moment of the Day
Everyone had a bit of fun with Labour’s ‘No Direction’ newspaper ad, including Fianna Fáil.
And the Anti-Austerity Alliance’s Paul Murphy.
It was a good day for
It was a bad day for
Tomorrow’s news today: What’s happening on the campaign trail
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