RTÉ Unveils full range of Election 2020 Campaign Coverage

RTÉ Election 2020. Your Vote. Your Voice

As the General Election 2020 campaign gets under way, RTÉ is set to undertake a record number of broadcasts to reflect voices and issues from all around Ireland across television, radio and online. RTÉ presenters including Miriam O’Callaghan, Caitriona Perry, Rachael English, Claire Byrne, Mary Wilson, Ray Kennedy, Aine Lawlor, David McCullagh, Cormac Ó hEadhra and Katie Hannon will be coming live from constituencies throughout the country and hearing the views of the people.

With a major leaders debate live from Galway for the first time, and a range of RTÉ’s biggest TV and radio programmes live from towns and cities, RTÉ will provide coverage from all 39 constituencies over the next three weeks in a mammoth outside broadcast schedule.

Throughout the election, RTÉ News & Current Affairs campaign coverage will be ‘digital-first’.A special Election 2020 index on RTÉ News online and on the RTÉ News Now app was launched the moment the election was called, housing analysis and insights from RTÉ’s political team as well as specialist correspondents on the big election issues. Every day, Campaign Daily will follow all the day’s events, online and on air, with a live online tracker pulling in the latest video and reporting from RTÉ’s campaign correspondents on the election trail. All 39 constituencies will be profiled in an interactive map to give online users the lie of the land right across the country. While five evenings a week, Aine Lawlor and Colm O’Mongain will pull together the day’s events in a special Election 2020 edition of the Your Politics podcast. RTÉ is launching a new online series On the Trail, on RTÉ Player and RTÉ’s YouTube channel. Featuring reporter Richard Downes taking a light-hearted look at the campaigns, trying to find out how they’re put together, what’s involved in planning them, what the Irish people make of the parties’ proposals, and what happens when the camera leaves town.

RTÉ One will feature two live television Leaders Debates during the campaign, on Monday 27th January and Tuesday 4th February. Broadcast from NUI Galway, Claire Byrne Live general election debate has invited leaders from seven political parties to take part, with questions from a live audience of over 300 people. The university is the academic home to over 19,000 students in its spectacular location boasting the unique landscape and culture of the West of Ireland and as the city begins its European Capital of Culture role.

With just days before the polls open, Prime Time will broadcast RTÉ’s final television leaders debate on Tuesday 4th February in the RTÉ studios in Dublin, with the leaders of the two biggest political parties invited. Both debates will be followed by a live reaction programme, The Spin Room.  

Election 2020: Bryan Dobson Interviews… is a brand new series of must watch in-depth interviews with political party leaders, to be broadcast at 7.00pm on RTÉ One.  

Prime Time will be broadcasting live from around the country during the campaign with special invited audiences discussing issues affecting long-distance commuters, small towns and villages, and urban communities. On Thursday’s, Richard Downes will be joined by reporters Maggie Doyle and Barry Lenihan for PT Extra on RTÉ One for a late night look at the ongoing events of the campaign.

RTÉ News flagship programmes the Six One News and Nine O’Clock News will also be on the road, broadcasting from Limerick, Meath, Waterford, Louth, Offaly and Mayo, along with coverage of all the day’s main news stories. RTÉ News will also have a dedicated team following the campaign trail along with the big stories and analysis from political correspondents Mícheál Lehane and Paul Cunningham.

The Week in Politics with Aine Lawlor will double its political coverage, keeping a sharp eye on the campaign as it unfolds with an additional programme every Wednesday night on RTÉ One television during the campaign. 

From today, RTÉ Radio 1 takes to the road to meet voters, challenge candidates and highlight the concerns and hopes of communities across Ireland. Starting this evening [Friday] with a debate from the so-called “constituency of death” – Dublin Bay North – Drivetime with Mary Wilson will broadcast live from more than a dozen locations between now and polling day, ranging from the Border counties to Cork City and from Wexford in the sunny south-east to Sligo in the north-west. Drivetime’s team of reporters will be on the ground across the nation throughout Election 2020, following candidates and exploring the local stories that will influence the shape of the 33rd Dáil. Morning Ireland is hitting the road too, exploring the issues that matter in different constituencies including Ennis, Waterford, Tipperary and Tullamore. The programme will also have interviews with the party leaders, alongside probing analysis.

Back in studio, Today with Sean O’Rourke will feature interviews with the party leaders, beginning with Solidarity-People Before Profit on Tuesday 21 February and continuing with Sinn Féin President Mary Lou-McDonald and co-leader of the Social Democrats Roisin Shortall on Wednesday 22 February. Issues and policy matters will shape the coverage on the News at One, Saturday with Cormac Ó hEadhra and The Late Debate with Katie Hannon. On Tuesday 18 February, Katie will host a live debate on health, featuring out-going Health Minister Simon Harris of Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil’s Stephen Donnelly and Louise O’Reilly of Sinn Féin. The programme will also take the debate out of the capital, hosting issue-led shows in Athlone and Cork. And each Sunday, This Week will present in-depth analysis of the key campaign issues. News at One with Claire Byrne and Aine Lawlor will be out an about during the final week of the campaign with outside broadcasts from Wicklow, Drogheda, Limerick and Sligo. There will be a satirical take on the week’s election news with Callan’s Kicks each Friday evening.

news2day will provide a range of coverage for young viewers during the campaign helping to inform and educate children on RTÉ2. Primary school children will be asked to send in their questions for the main party leaders along with news2day‘s popular explainer on the voting system and daily facts.

Each day, Nuacht RTÉ le TG4 will cover the main events of the election campaign nationally and in various constituencies, on television, online and on social media. Nuacht will have a strong online presence with up to date constituency profiles and campaign updates from reporters in the field on the RTÉ News Now app, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

There will be six special campaign Vóta 2020 programmes presented by Páidí Ó Lionaird, Eimear Ní Chonaola and Siún Nic Gearailt re-broadcast on RTÉ News Now. Three of these will be co-presented from Donegal, Kerry, and Galway West constituencies.

RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta will be providing comprehensive nationwide coverage of the election campaign throughout the run-up to General Election 2020 from their bases in Kerry, Galway, Donegal and Dublin.  As part of that coverage, Cormac Ó hEadhra will present a special edition of Nuacht a hAon at 1.30 pm on Friday 24 January from RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta HQ in Casla. Galway West politicians, including Éamon Ó Cuív FF, Mairéad Farrell SF, Niall Ó Tuathail Soc Dem, and Seán Kyne FG, will be in studio to answer questions from local secondary students.

Current affairs programmes Adhmhaidin, Nuacht a hAon, Tús Áite and An tSeachtain le Máirín Ní Ghardhra will provide analysis of all elements of the electoral campaign, and regional magazine shows Iris Aniar, Barrscéalta and An Saol ó Dheas, will focus on the most pressing questions for the electorate in Galway, Mayo, Donegal, Kerry, Cork and Waterford.