THE leaders of Stormont's five main parties clashed on RHI and Brexit in their first TV debate of the 2017 election campaign - but nobody emerged from the encounter as clear victor.
UTV's Havelock House was the setting for the debate, which unlike last year's corresponding programme was not recorded in front of a live audience.
News anchorman Marc Mallet pitched the questions in a lively if largely predictable one-hour broadcast.
Asked to set out her priorities ahead of the poll, DUP leader Arlene Foster said the election was about who set Stormont's future direction.
She insisted her party could secure the best post-Brexit deal for the north because of its influence on the British government, while claiming the DUP had ensured the RHI would not cost the predicted £490m over the next 20 years.
"Gerry Adams and his radical agenda" was also mentioned several times.
In one of the more spontaneous parts of the debate, Mrs Foster was challenged first by Sinn Féin's Michelle O'Neill and then Mr Mallet on where the DUP secured the funds to pay for costly pro-Brexit adverts in the British media.
Despite saying that she would reveal the identity of mystery donor, the exact source of the cash remains unknown.
"They (the funds) are from an organisation in England that wants to see the union kept and make sure we can have a United Kingdom because it was a national vote..." she said.
[ Political correspondent John Manley scores the debateOpens in new window ]
Ms O'Neill said the election had come about as a result of DUP "arrogance and contempt" and that Sinn Féin wanted an assembly that "builds bridges".
She repeated her assertion that her party would not accept Mrs Foster as first or deputy first minister until the public inquiry into the RHI scandal had concluded.
"I want to lead our party into government and make sure we share power with people who are wedded to the principles of the Good Friday Agreement," she said.
"We need to bring society into the modern era."
Mike Nesbitt rounded on both the DUP and Sinn Féin, claiming the past decade of devolution had been characterised by "incompetence, arrogance and cronyism".
"They've had 10 years and frankly they've fluffed it – no budget, no programme for government – 10 years of disappointment and debacle," he said.
The Ulster Unionist leader accused Mrs Foster of peddling the "politics of fear" by highlighting the possibility that Sinn Féin could emerge as Stormont's largest party.
Colum Eastwood also highlighted the RHI scandal, saying "one person on the panel designed it (Mrs Foster) and another (Ms O'Neill) let them away with it".
The SDLP leader added that the north needed special EU status and warned that Brexit was "the most dangerous thing to face us since partition".
Naomi Long said Alliance would have the same demands for joining a new executive as it did last May.
She said her party would be seeking assurances that there was a will to tackle paramilitarism and promote integrated education.
