This is what you were searching for.
As to be expected with any debate involving Facebook and online metrics, Google Trends has revealed some pretty interesting details regarding the most recent debate. Senator Averil Power, Independent candidate in the Dublin Bay North constituency, was the most searched for candidate on Google during last night’s Election Special.
A third of all candidate searches (33%) were for her, followed by Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald (21%) and Leo Varadkar (21%).
Here’s the list in full:
Averil Power – 33%
Mary Lou McDonald – 21%
Leo Varadkar – 15%
Aodhán Ó Ríordáin – 10%
Eamon Ryan – 8%
Timmy Dooley – 7%
Adrienne Wallace – 6%
Keeping in line with the rhetoric and narrative of the previous Leaders Debate, some of the key issues that the Irish public searched for were jobs, tax, education and healthcare but neither of these grabbed the public’s interest the most.
Abortion was the most searched for issue last night, not entirely surprising given that it had not been discussed prominently during the previous debates.
Sinn Féin, Fianna Fail and Fine Gael were the three most searched parties during the debate and the most popular questions searched were;
Could Fianna Fail win the General Election?
What does Fine Gael mean?
Why are young people into Sinn Fein?
Who formed the Labour Party in Ireland?
How many seats does the Green Party have?
How many AAA candidates are there in the 2016 election?
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