Of The Small Amount Listening, Not Enough Were Persuaded.

Around four in ten voters (41%) did not watch the final televised debate of the presidential election, which aired during Prime Time's 9:35pm slot on RTÉ One last Tuesday. According to 40% of voters, Catherine Connolly enjoyed the best performance, compared to 11% for Humphreys and 9% who were unsure.

Strikingly, every intended Connolly voter that watched the just over hour-long showdown said that she won the debate. Connolly supporters were also the most engaged overall – reporting the highest rates of viewership among all other voting groups. This kind of unwavering and disciplined engagement points to a higher propensity among this group to have turned out on polling day.

By contrast, supporters of Heather Humphries were less engaged, with 42% opting not to watch at all. Even among those who did, around a third conceded that they felt Connolly had out performed her. It remains to be seen how much this deflated engagement in the final week of campaigning may have affected turnout amongst otherwise dependable voters on election day. This polling suggest that the pool of persuadable voters is narrowing for Humphreys.

Likely Gavin voters were nearly as disengaged as Humphreys' voters, with little evidence of confidence in the communication abilities of the candidate representing Fianna Fáil's coalition partner. This suggests Humphreys failed to cut through even to voters who are bound to be of similar political ideologies.

Voters that were likely to have spoiled their ballot were overwhelmingly absent from the viewership, with seven in ten saying they did not watch the debate. Of those that did, the majority broke for Connolly, perhaps indicating the often shared overlap of anti-establishment sentiment in otherwise two very ideologically distinct movements.

Finally, those who were either unsure how they would vote, if at all, were also unlikely to have viewed the debate. If they did, 90% resonated the most with Connolly's message.