Representatives of five political parties took part in an election debate on RTÉ's Prime Time, with climate change and health sparking the most lively exchanges.
Labour Party leader Brendan Howlin, Green Party leader Eamon Ryan, Social Democrats co-leader Róisín Shortall, Ruth Coppinger of Solidarity-People Before Profit and Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín discussed the key issues ahead of the General Election on Saturday.
The debate was seen as a big opportunity for the smaller parties, who could be the kingmakers in the new Dáil, to get their message across in the absence of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Sinn Féin.
The parties were asked about their 'red lines' for coalition. Ms Coppinger said Solidarity-People Before Profit's key point was to use society’s resources to tackle the housing crisis.
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Ms Shortall said her party aimed to bring integrity and honesty to politics, to ensure that there was affordable housing and decent healthcare.
Brendan Howlin said Labour would put an end to the waste of public money, and would build homes as well as fix health.
Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín said his party wanted to fix the geographic imbalance between the cities and rural Ireland, and have a balanced spatial delivery of resources.
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Green Party leader Eamon Ryan said tackling the climate crisis was his party’s priority, and that it could be done in a way that was good for the people of Ireland.
The debate, moderated by Miriam O'Callaghan and David McCullagh, comes as political parties and independents are making a final push for votes ahead of Saturday's poll.
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The debate as it happened
'Progressive alliance' call
Mr Howlin proposed talks with the Social Democrats and the Green Party after the election next week, saying it was important to have a "left-of-centre progressive alliance".
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Mr Tóibín, meanwhile, said a vote for Fianna Fáil or his former party Sinn Féin could put Fine Gael back into government.
On climate change, Mr Ryan defended his party's proposals on investment and carbon tax and rejected suggestions that rural Ireland would suffer more from the Green Party’s plans.
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He added that the party would introduce measures to protect people from fuel poverty if carbon tax rose.
But Ms Coppinger said her group was the only one proposing free public transport, and added that the climate change problem could not be solved without radical economic change.
SláinteCare funding
On health, Mr Tóibín rejected a suggestion that his party was planning to "dump" SláinteCare, saying the problem was that there were not enough resources to deliver it.
Ms Shortall said we now had an all-party plan, but they key issue was which parties were prepared to fund it.
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The Labour leader said his party would not deviate from the SláinteCare blueprint and would fund it properly.
Mr Ryan came in for criticism for the Green Party’s plan to standardise tax relief on pensions, with Ms Shortall saying this would amount to a cut in take-home pay for many workers.
Ms Coppinger also called for the establishment of a state construction company.
She defended proposals for a four-day, 40-hour working week, saying we had the technology and the wealth to improve people’s lives.
