Leaders' debate verdict: A tetchy Harris allows Martin and McDonald go toe-to-toe
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Simon Harris needed to pull a rabbit out of a hat.
In the end, there were no rabbits and no hats to be found during Tuesday's leaders debate, as a tetchy yet passive Taoiseach allowed Micheál Martin and Mary Lou McDonald go toe-to-toe on housing, the economy and other issues.
Harris did manage to get in a few swipes, however.
McDonald glanced over at Martin as the Taoiseach claimed "my party has never crashed the economy, and my party has helped pick this country up off its knees."
He swung at Sinn Féin's economic strategy when he said "now is not the time to run the country on a credit card."
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Harris was of course coming into this debate on the back foot and as he made his way into the studios, that now viral interaction with care worker Charlotte Fallon was raised by members of the media outside.
Before the Martin-McDonald debate kicked off, Harris was singled out and asked about the fact that a member of his team had contacted before the clip of him speaking to Ms Fallon in Kanturk on Friday evening aired.
Harris, claimed this was all part of the "normal contact" that happens between his team and the media.
"We have made progress on carers," he added, but "we are not where we need to be".
A nervous smile emerged and quickly vanished from Harris' face as the Tánaiste was then questioned on the matter.
"It illustrates that out there, there are a lot of people suffering," Martin said, adding that the there is a need for all politicians to "listen" to members of the public.
But that was a far as Martin - who has categorically ruled out doing a deal with Sinn Fein and in doing so has glued himself to Harris - went on the issue.
McDonald looked to the men on both sides of her and landed the blow of the night.
"I think it is shameful that you cannot walk the length of yourself in any town, village, community, without meeting parents, mothers desperate and frantic, because not alone can they not get an assessment of need, they can get no support for their children."
"You don't seem even capable to hear people and hear their experiences," she said, sandwiched in between her two rivals.
As the debate wore on policing and the Dublin riots came up, where Harris managed to accuse McDonald of holding a press conference at a crime scene, to which she insisted was simply speaking in her constituency.
As two former health ministers, Harris was reminded the promise he had made in 2017 to children with scoliosis, while Martin was pressed on conditions in University Hospital Limerick.
Climate Change was one of the last topics to be raised, usually a pedestrian enough subject to cover in such debates.
But it brought the debate right back to where it started with the spotlight firmly back on the Taoiseach and the Fine Gael links to Michael O'Leary.
But the probing of Harris didn't end there and his party's selection of John McGahon in Co Louth, who was found liable for assault in civil case was brought up.
"Why should people trust you Simon Harris with holding and keeping this country properly run and safe?" Miriam O'Callaghan asked.
Attention then turned to Martin in the final minutes of the lengthy programme.
"You emphatically ruled out going into Government with Fine Gael last time out, you said they needed to come out of Government and yet here you are as Tánaiste five years in Government with Fine Gael. Why should people trust you when you say now you're not going to go in with Sinn Féin?" Sarah McInerney asked.
O'Callaghan and McInerney, the real winners of the debate.