Housing, crime and tax were among the issues raised a televised leaders' debate in Galway on Monday night.
Seven party leaders took part at NUI Galway, with the formation of a coalition government discussed at the beginning.
Both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil reiterated that they would not enter a coalition with Sinn Féin following the vote next month.
That led to Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald hitting out at Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin.
"There's something incredibly arrogant, obnoxious even, when the leaders of other parties say to us in Sinn Féin that they believe that we can be disregarded.
"That we particularly - and more importantly the people that we represent - have no right to expect that their representatives would be around the decision-making table".
But Mr Martin hit back, saying that the country's two biggest parties owe Sinn Féin nothing.
We don't... we're under no obligation at all to say we must allow Sinn Féin in government".
There was something of a mini-threeway debate between the leaders of Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Sinn Fein.
It started when Micheal Martin claimed Sinn Fein is against the Special Criminal Court.
That was something Mary Lou McDonald didn’t address directly, instead talked about judicial changes.
The topic very quickly moved to housing, where Labour’s Brendan Howlin drew the first applause of the night.
It was an area that Richard Boyd-Barrett of Solidarity-People Before Profit was keen to get in on the conversation as well.
However the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar defended his party’s policies.
Green Party leader Eamon Ryan wanted to ensure that his climate change policies weren’t attacking farmers:
While Roisin Shorthall of the Social Democrats said more resources were needed to tackle crime:
With no room for health on last night’s debate, expect it to be a talking point when all seven leaders go against each other again this Thursday.
