A number of cross-party representatives have been asked if they ever took recreational drugs.

Pat Kenny hosted an all-female panel of Social Democrats co-leader Roisin Shortall, Fianna Fáil TD Lisa Chambers, Fine Gael's Kate O'Connell, Green Party Senator Pippa Hackett and Sinn Féin's health spokesperson Louise O'Reilly.

The question was put to each panel member.

Deputy O'Connell said: "When I was in university I smoked some cannabis - but I'd never taken a chemical, synthetic drug.

"I'm a pharmacist by profession and fully understand the difficulties but also in terms of the safety aspect".

Senator Hackett said: "I was at university in the 1990s and I would have smoked some cannabis.

"There were people around me that would have taken acid and maybe ecstasy towards the later stages - but I never engaged in any of that at all".

Lisa Chambers replied: "No I haven't - I have a particular thing with smoking in general.

"I never even smoke cigarettes, just really had a dislike to it from a very young age - it just wasn't for me".

Louise O'Reilly said her time in university "was no different to anyone else's in many respects" and that she did smoke cannabis during her first year in college.

But she said that when she became a mother at the age of 21 it "put a halt very effectively to any gallop I might have had an interest in".

And Roisin Shortall said her "main drug of choice" in college was alcohol - but she never smoked cannabis.

"Have you ever taken recreational drugs?" @PatKennyNT challenges his #GE2020 panel. @RoisinShortall @lichamber @loreillysf @campaignforkate @pippa_hackett pic.twitter.com/lkb4lyFTGZ

— Newstalk (@NewstalkFM) January 23, 2020