The RTÉ Prime Time debate on Tuesday night pitted the familiar arguments of the Yes and No sides – the “hard cases” versus “abortion on demand” but saw neither side emerge as a clear winner. The event was a less raucous affair than last week’s RTÉ debate. The hours before the debate saw a fierce row between RTÉ and the No side who wanted to nominate Maria Steen of the Iona Institute as their second representative for the debate instead of Cora Sherlock, who had previously agreed to participate. Ms Steen appeared in last week’s debate on the RTÉ, where she performed very strongly and was reckoned by many observers to have won the debate for the No side. Although the No side argued that pro-Repeal obstetrician Peter Boylan had appeared on two television debates, RTÉ declined to accept Ms Steen.

Source: The Irish Times May 22, 2018 21:45 UTC