UPDATE: You can watch this programme again on the RTE Player site.

• 9:30 PM Mark_Coughlan - For the sake of clarity, it’s a Euro election special specifically – nothing on the by-elections or locals
• 9:34 PM Fergal Crehan - Prime Time preceded by an FG Party Political Broadcast. Enda Kenny in an Important Office with a flag behind him. His tie is awful.
• 9:35 PM Fergal Crehan - Cut to the candidates on the trail. Wow. I mean I know politics is not a glamorous buisiness, but still…
• 9:37 PM Fergal Crehan - EU elections are the largest exercise in democracy ever seen. And yet…
• 9:40 PM Mark_Coughlan - Ganley is going to bring back the bonus and the keep off the third level fees? From Brussels?
• 9:40 PM Fergal Crehan - Man says that Leitrim didn’t get much from Europe in the past 20 years. I suspect the figures for structural grants say otherwise.
• 9:41 PM Mark_Coughlan - @Fregal But they have shopping centres in Dublin! They must have got loads!
• 9:43 PM Mark_Coughlan - One of my pet-hates – people saying Fine (in the English pronunciation) Gael…
• 9:43 PM Fergal Crehan - How can someone say it makes no difference who’s in power, when they’ve only ever known one party in power?
• 9:46 PM Suzy Byrne - I’m still not over Paschal Mooney snogging that bride
• 9:47 PM Fergal Crehan - That man is an IFA lobbyist. No doubt he’s a farmer too, but he’s not just a random talking head.
• 9:51 PM Suzy Byrne - I wonder did parties get asked to put someone forward or did the producers pick people specifically
• 9:52 PM Simon McGarr - Eoin Ryan, loser-in-waiting, gives us the old waffle. Hardly the way to make a breakthrough.
• 9:53 PM Simon McGarr - Susan O’Keefe is playing her party colour scheme at full throttle.
• 9:53 PM Mark_Coughlan - Marko is getting in my Twitter research from Friday… lol
• 9:54 PM Simon McGarr - Did I see the appearance of FF as The National Question?
• 9:54 PM Suzy Byrne - Waits for SRTechnics mention…
• 9:54 PM Mark_Coughlan - *edit* waits [with Suzy] for STR
• 9:54 PM Fergal Crehan - Joe wastes no time in getting “Neo-liberalism” in
• 9:55 PM Suzy Byrne - There is a lot of canvass tan/burn going on tonight.
• 9:55 PM Simon McGarr - When do neo-liberals get to be just liberals? Or are they like 1 new p?
• 9:55 PM Mark_Coughlan - Susan O’Keefe must be melting, big overcoat under those lights…
• 9:56 PM Simon McGarr - God, I can’t stand Mary-Lou McDonald.
• 9:57 PM RTE_Elections - Dan Boyle, Green Party, says there is a sense of disillusionment with the Govt but it is not being channelled in the right way
• 9:57 PM Fergal Crehan - My own personal Section 31 goes into effect when MLMcD starts talking on TV
• 9:57 PM Mark_Coughlan - @Simon when does Clark become superman… he goes into the phonebooth, he comes out but no one knows when exactly it happens…
• 9:57 PM Simon McGarr - Looking forward to the Libertas guy. He looks like a laugh
• 9:57 PM Mark_Coughlan - @Fergal LOL
• 9:58 PM Simon McGarr - Liveblogging impaired by eating an ice cream cone. Mint choc-chip the corner stone of democracy.
• 9:58 PM Suzy Byrne - Colm Burke wins fashion jury vote!
• 9:59 PM RTE_Elections - Prime Time’s Aoife Kavanagh reports on the race for Europe. Watch it now www.rte.ie
• 10:00 PM Suzy Byrne - Anyone fancy calling it?
• 10:01 PM Fergal Crehan - @Suzy Heart says Joe, but head says MLMcD
• 10:02 PM Simon McGarr - Spleen chuckles to itself about Eoin Ryan.
• 10:03 PM Mark_Coughlan - No one knows what Thomas King looks like… seriously, nobody.
• 10:03 PM Simon McGarr - Nessa Childers takes a late sudden surge in the fashion stakes with her magic blue jacket.
• 10:04 PM Suzy Byrne - It’s a change from the pink alright Simon
• 10:05 PM Suzy Byrne - Missing pictures in the East Candidate list also.
• 10:05 PM Simon McGarr - Paddy Garvey and Jim Tallon the men of mystery in East constituency.
• 10:05 PM Fergal Crehan - Mark Little does not strike one as a man much given to deep thought or reflection
• 10:06 PM Simon McGarr - What do you have the other two don’t to the three looking for the last Dublin seat. Joe starts slow.
• 10:06 PM Suzy Byrne - Eoin Ryan will say that Mary Lou and Joe won’t bring any jobs to Dublin and namecall them something terrible
• 10:07 PM Mark_Coughlan - …
• 10:07 PM Suzy Byrne - Another unfortunate camera moment for Eoin
• 10:07 PM Simon McGarr - But hits his stride with nationalisation of the banks under central command and control- a policy he stuck with until the wheel finally turned it up.
• 10:08 PM Simon McGarr - Brain tuning Mary-Lou out.
• 10:08 PM Simon McGarr - Eoin Ryan in favour of good. Against evil.
• 10:08 PM Mark_Coughlan - I’m anti-jobs. Wont vote for Eoin so.
• 10:08 PM Fergal Crehan - He is pro jobs. This is revolutionary
• 10:09 PM Simon McGarr - References his track record. I’ve failed to notice same.
• 10:10 PM Fergal Crehan - Insane FF tactic. Identifying with the companies and not the workers.
• 10:10 PM Simon McGarr - Brain blocker engaged. Someone will have to fill in what she’s saying.
• 10:10 PM Simon McGarr - He went on flights with FAS!
• 10:11 PM Fergal Crehan - FAS junkets a sure vote-winner! Joe Higgins ought to hit him hard on that
• 10:11 PM Suzy Byrne - Bingo!
• 10:11 PM Mark_Coughlan - YAAAAY
• 10:11 PM Fergal Crehan - SR Technics. Drink!
• 10:12 PM Simon McGarr - Scuttling! Joe wins on best insect imagry.
• 10:12 PM Suzy Byrne - Joe is leaving studio to go on Vincent?
• 10:12 PM Simon McGarr - SR Technics FTW!
• 10:13 PM Simon McGarr - That was unilluminating. It simply reinforced my existing feelings about the MEP candidates.
• 10:13 PM dermotcasey - Right think there’ll have to be a new version of buzzword bingo for elections
• 10:13 PM Mark_Coughlan - MLMCD was vague, even more so than usual
• 10:14 PM lostexpectation - hello
• 10:14 PM Simon McGarr - Joe will be Joe. ML McDonald induces mental fug. And Eoin Ryan has loser written all over his flabby uninspiring face.
• 10:15 PM Fergal Crehan - @Simon You can smell the failure off the FF campaign these days. People run from them lest it rub off on them
• 10:15 PM Mark_Coughlan - Just breathed a big sigh of relief when I confirmed I was signed into my own accounts when I tweeted “Quote @votejoehiggins “SR Technics”… again.”
• 10:16 PM lostexpectation - ff won’t do as bad as anyone hopes
• 10:16 PM lostexpectation - i wish rte would do more on the locals
• 10:17 PM Mark_Coughlan - they did a program like this on the locals on Thursday
• 10:18 PM lostexpectation - did he say bombed by the tsunami?
• 10:18 PM Suzy Byrne - Pat Cox doing his plug for ‘make me commissioner’
• 10:19 PM Fergal Crehan - FF will not want to lose a TD to Europe. Rumours swirling that they might give Cox the gig. When does it fall open?
• 10:19 PM Simon McGarr - Yes, that’s right. They were bombed by a tidal wave. Just as well we have clear communicators in Europe.
• 10:19 PM Simon McGarr - Cox politically homeless. No way plums will fall to him. If you don’t want to lose a TD to Europe, you send your Attorney General.
• 10:20 PM Suzy Byrne - Youtube questions arrive in
• 10:20 PM Mark_Coughlan - Reckon that’ll be the only youtube question that’ll get used…
• 10:20 PM Suzy Byrne - Raymond O’Malley joins the panel with his 80% figure which goes down to 70 in seconds
• 10:21 PM Simon McGarr - Hooray! Raymond O’Malley appears and immediately snorts up his nose. Nobody disputes his figures, he says. Then, when challenged, he says everyone disputes it.
• 10:21 PM Mark_Coughlan - O’Malley is class
• 10:22 PM Fergal Crehan - Ho ho. Susan O’Keeffe went all Vinnie Brown on him for moment there.
• 10:22 PM lostexpectation - politcians not reading laws they pass, never!
• 10:23 PM lostexpectation - has he found the maltese falcon yet?
• 10:24 PM Mark_Coughlan - Wish the candidates had actually answered that question
• 10:24 PM lostexpectation - ++for oireachtas review of eu laws, is that actually happening? What is susan o’keefe wearing?
• 10:25 PM Simon McGarr -
  
• 10:25 PM Mark_Coughlan - … you know…
• 10:26 PM Suzy Byrne - Eoin is all over the place tonight – can’t namedrop for peanuts
• 10:26 PM Simon McGarr - I can’t resist. I admit it.
• 10:26 PM Simon McGarr - He’s got a rational geo-political point to make. Alas, he is a Fianna Failer and therefore nobody is listening.
• 10:26 PM Fergal Crehan - Vast majority of EU legislation is in directive form, which by its very nature must be reviewed by national parliaments. In practice, the government tends to wait until the UK have transposed it into their own national law, and copy the wording
• 10:27 PM Mark_Coughlan - Fuckin hell, Eoin is having awful luck with the camera clips lately…
• 10:28 PM Simon McGarr - Much of Ireland’s post-Independence legislation basically a photocopy of the UK’s with a harp on top.
• 10:28 PM lostexpectation - did ye hear last week ryan talking about getting loans for business,up piped mitchell to say he wrote the report and ff didnt invite him to the launch
• 10:29 PM Simon McGarr - O’Malley of Libertas takes the floor on the sensitive topic of immigration. He’s not looking to close off immigration. Instead he want to look at closing off immigration.
• 10:29 PM Fergal Crehan - Eoin Ryan reminds me of John McCain in the later stages of his campaign last year. Once you get that loser feeling, its hard to shake off. Nothing seems to go your way, right down to camera angles and lighting
• 10:29 PM Suzy Byrne - Raymond does it again – starts off saying there is a problem goes round the houses and then finishes by saying the problem is solving itself.
• 10:29 PM Fergal Crehan - We are encouraging more immigrants to come here? Ireland? Encouraging immigrants?
• 10:30 PM Simon McGarr - The Fianna Fail phrase book is a small, handy pocket size. “Small Open Economy” gets its own page.
• 10:30 PM faduda - Did Ryan just say “Feck it”?
• 10:31 PM Simon McGarr - !
• 10:31 PM Mark_Coughlan - @Gerard I think it was an effectively
• 10:31 PM Simon McGarr - FF changed their position on immigration in the last 24 hours. Eoin Ryan says he did it because of a changing world.
• 10:32 PM Simon McGarr - I can’t believe he’s dragged Corrib in right now.
• 10:32 PM Simon McGarr - Jaw hanging.
• 10:32 PM Fergal Crehan - The pack scents blood now. Taking turns to savage him
• 10:32 PM lostexpectation - have we turned to tv3?
• 10:33 PM Simon McGarr - Was this FG stuffed shirt co-opted into the EuroParl?
• 10:33 PM Mark_Coughlan - @LE no, not tonight…
• 10:33 PM Suzy Byrne - Took over from Coveney @Simon
• 10:35 PM Mark_Coughlan - This guy was head of the IFA?
• 10:35 PM Simon McGarr - Vincent Browne Liveblog www.scribblelive.com
• 10:36 PM Suzy Byrne - Eh what did Dan contribute to the programme?
• 10:36 PM Mark_Coughlan - @Suzy … probably more than Joe Higgins…
• 10:36 PM Fergal Crehan - Actually the Lisbon treaty has been significantly renegotiated. A government with less of the stench of death about them might have been able to sell that fact
• 10:37 PM Simon McGarr - Is it possible to link to that programme on the RTE Player yet?