Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin went head-to-head on the first televised debate of the general election, here’s how they fared:

LEO VARADKAR

STYLE

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Dressed in a dark suit, pristine white shirt and trademark blue tie, Mr Varadkar was expressive with his hands when making his points – a fact noted by many on Twitter – but he was measured and more mature than he has been in Dáil exchanges with Mr Martin in the past.

SUBSTANCE

The Fine Gael leader made probably the biggest political news of the night when he declared he was willing to go into coalition with Fianna Fáil if unable to secure his preferred option of governing Labour, Independents and potentially the Greens.

BEST MOMENT

Mr Varadkar forensically and effectively deconstructed Fianna Fáil’s promise to introduce an SSIA-style scheme for first-time buyers and argued it was better to give a tax credit in the form of the Help to Buy Scheme. A close second was admitting to his most glaring personal failing – a lack of empathy. “Maybe I don’t say the right words,” he said. “But I show the fact I care in the work I do.” It was a solid answer.

WORST MOMENT

Mr Varadkar was painfully hesitant when asked about his past drug use. At first he tried to deflect by claiming he had answered the question “about 12 or 13 years ago” in a Hot Press magazine interview. But when pressed by both Mr Martin and Pat Kenny, he admitted: “Yes, but it was obviously a long time ago.”

OVERALL SCORE

This was a debate Mr Varadkar had to outshine his rival in and he delivered with an assured performance that showed a level of maturity that sometimes eludes him in other forums. He was on top of his brief and only fell down when it came to defending his and Fine Gael’s questionable record on health and his own past drug use.

7/10

MICHEÁL MARTIN:

STYLE

Micheál Martin sported a snappy blue suit, lilac shirt and dark pink tie but his debating style was often defensive and argumentative. He was perhaps a bit taken aback that Leo Varadkar seemed to had had his Weetabix was well prepared for the debate.

SUBSTANCE

He was strong in attacking Mr Varadkar’s record on housing saying there’s “too many” on housing waiting lists and “too many” homeless and people can’t save for homes due to the “excessive high cost of rent”. He had a good argument to make for allowing Fine Gael to saying in power saying he makes no apologies for ensuring a functioning government during Brexit.

BEST MOMENT

One of his better lines was in response to Mr Varadkar saying the parties must be grown up about forming a government. He claimed the Taoiseach hadn’t been so grown up adding: “There’s been more personal attacks from Fine Gael on me than there has been on policies around education, childcare and other areas.” It was a neat repost to Fine Gael’s scrapped ‘Benny Hill’ attack add that claimed Fianna Fáil had no policies.

WORST MOMENT

Pat Kenny put it to both Mr Martin and Mr Varadkar that they had to put their hands up over failure by both of them when they were ministers for health. Mr Martin visibly bristled as he insisted there is “absolutely no comparison” between the pair and complained that Mr Kenny “made a statement that’s completely unfair and inaccurate”. It looked petulant.

OVERALL SCORE

It wasn’t Micheál Martin’s finest debating performances and he will have to up his game next time. Leo Varadkar is a very different proposition to Enda Kenny, the Fine Gael leader he faced last time. But that said Mr Varadkar did not land any knockout blow and Mr Martin held his own. He lives to fight another day.

6/10

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