Social Democrat European candidate Rory Hearne said it is “ridiculous” his party is being excluded from election debates on RTÉ.
Mr Hearne, who is running in the Midlands Northwest constituency, was invited to appear on Upfront with Katie Hannon on Monday night.
The debate will include the current MEPs such as Maria Walsh and Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan, along with candidates such as Peadar Tóibín, Peter Casey and Saoirse McHugh.
Some eight candidates will be interviewed of the 27 running in the Midlands Northwest constituency.
Mr Hearne told The Anton Savage Show the decision from RTÉ not to include him is “very disappointing”.
“The difference with me [to other candidates not invited] is I’m representing a party that has six TDs and 22 councillors.” he said.
“That is one of the criteria that [RTÉ] included [but] they filled the eight from another two criteria.
“You do have to draw a line somewhere, but I think it’s ridiculous that the Social Democrats are not in the Midlands Northwest debate.”
Criteria to appear in the European election debate for Upfront includes if the candidate is currently an elected MEP, TD, Senator or councillor or if the candidate previously lost an election but had 5% of the vote.
A candidate is also eligible if their party won at least two seats in the last General Election or five seats in the last local election.
Hearne excluded from debate
Mr Hearne said it would make more sense to have ten candidates in the debate, or hold two debates.
“I was looking at RTÉ’s schedule for what’s on the following evening and afterwards and it’s rerun of various programmes,” he said.
“Is that what we’re reducing our democracy to?”
In a statement to Newstalk, RTÉ said the criteria ensures debates "are as informative and coherent as possible to best serve the audience".
It said it has added an "additional impartial and objective criterion to decide participation where more than eight candidates may qualify".
European elections in Dublin
While Mr Hearne campaigns across the midlands and northwest, Senator Regina Doherty is campaigning for a seat at the European Parliament in Dublin.
In a constituency of “1.2 million houses”, Ms Doherty said you won’t get the chance to knock on every door.
“You see a lot of commuter canvases in the morning and evening time,” she said.
“We do stuff outside football matches, outside shopping centres on Saturdays.
“It is different because you have a different kind of conversation with someone at a train station than you would at their front door.”
Local elections
Meanwhile, local election candidate Kevin O’Meara in Carrick-on-Suir said he often speaks about national issue with constituents.
“They bring up health, housing, immigration issues, everything you see in the newspapers,” he said.
“Health affects everyone, housing affects everyone people want to live in these areas, but their hands are tied.
“I think there’s frustration with the main Government parties at the minute.
“We have a housing list in Tipperary and the country council has done great chipping away at that, but national policy needs to change to make proper progress.”
Local and European elections take place on June 7th.
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