Toireasa Ferris said:

Given that most weeks consisted of 70/80 hours of work and canvassing across five counties, its not surprising that specific details of various debates/events during the EU campaign are slim, to say the least. One event however, that does stand out is the debate we candidates participated in at IT Tralee.

The occassion was memorable for a number of reasons. it was one of the first panel debates we had engaged in and to be honest the task was made all the more nerve racking by the knowledge and debating skills demonstrated by the students in the first part of the evening. We were supposed to be the experts on the European Union and given that most of us had campaigned on the Lisbon Treaty, we were expected to know more than the average person. Trying to follow the students performances was going to be a tough task.

It was also a proud evening for me that one of my former students, who i had tought EU Law in the community college, was selected as the most impressive speaker that evening. Her team failed to win the debate, which to be fair, was not the expected outcome amongst some members of the audience.

While turn out for the event wasn't that high, those who did attend demonstrated great interest in the subject matter and there was lively debate between the candidates who had opposing views on the lisbon treaty.

Congratulations to all involved, as i said it was one of the most memorable events i participated in during the campaign, unfortunately i wasn't in a position to attend this years debate as i was committed to atted another meeting that night, but given its an annual event, i look forward to the Decbate in 2011.