Man’s best friend helps Terry scoop up votes

DOG POO doesn’t usually figure on the political radar as a major issue.

Invariably, the state of the health service emerges as the issue of primary concern for the populace.

Yet when the Minister for Health is out canvassing on part of his home patch, dog fouling is indeed a top priority.

Knocking on the doors in the affluent Endsleigh estate on the Douglas Road in Cork, the reaction to Micheál Martin focuses on two areas: congratulations on the success of the smoking ban and complaints about dog owners letting their pets do their business on the green. Oh, and a few people light-heartedly slag him off about his celebrated crab claws and sandwiches incident at the Cork versus Limerick match the previous weekend.

Fortunately, while the minister has the smoking ban sorted, his old friend on whose behalf he is campaigning, Alderman Terry Shannon, has the solution to the dog problem: pooper scoopers.

"Anyone with a dog licence will get a packet of pooper scooper bags in the post," he says after another resident mentions it as a favourite bugbear.

As a former chairman of the Environment Committee of Cork County Council, Terry says the council is sending out the bags and they'll be available in shops as well.

All politics is local, but more than ever these local elections are being decided on issues right outside people's homes. Indeed, bubbling over with enthusiasm as he talks the talk on the doorsteps, Terry has a remedy to virtually all the local issues, from traffic calming to amenities, in the South-East ward of Cork City Council.

The dump on the Kinsale Road has been replaced by the future of the Douglas Swimming Pool as the big issue in the area.

Listing off the various options explored to upgrade the ageing facility, he says he is against privatising it and gives the impression that Government funding won't be an obstacle if an application is made, as Churchfield swimming pool on the northside of the city got e4.8 million.

"What I am hoping to do is develop it and get Leisureworld to run it for us," he says.

Having a Cabinet minister standing beside you helps these views carry a bit more weight even if he isn't doing the talking.

The relationship with Micheál Martin will count a lot for Terry in the forthcoming elections even if he is more than capable of looking after himself. Micheál and Terry go back a long way. In the early '80s, Micheál challenged Terry for the chairmanship of Ógra Fianna Fáil in their Cork South-Central constituency. After the pair were tied on votes, names were drawn from a hat and Terry won.

"Micheál reckons his name was never actually in the hat," Terry says with a knowing grin.

From then on, Terry became part of Micheál's kitchen cabinet of close supporters in Cork, which helped the local lad go from Turner's Cross to the Cabinet table.

In 1999, Terry fancied a shot at the council for the first time and topped the poll the first Fianna Fáil candidate to ever do so in the ward that was traditionally dominated by old rivals Fine Gael.

The Martin factor has changed the dynamic in Cork South-Central and the merchant princes have been deposed as the dominant force on the southside of the city. In the neighbouring Cork City Council ward of South-Central, where the minister cut his teeth in politics, his brother Seán, who took over the seat when Micheál was appointed to the Cabinet in 1997, is expected to be elected comfortably again.

And in the adjoining Cork County Council, another of Micheál's election team, Cllr Deirdre Forde, is being tipped as a poll-topper in the intensely competitive Carrigaline electoral area, also in Micheál's Cork South-Central constituency, where Fianna Fáil's extremely strong ticket is challenging for a fourth seat out of seven.

Yet in fairness to Micheál, despite his close links to these three councillors, he has also been out canvassing with Terry's running mates in the ward, Donal Counihan and Seán Hourihan, along with other Fianna Fáil candidates in the city that county who have asked him to come out to lend a hand.

Aside from the local issues, the smoking ban genuinely comes up at every second or third door, with constituents congratulating the minister for having the nerve to see it through and successfully implement the policy.

"Your smoking ban is a great success, boy. Fair play to you, boy," says a young man, who comes out to the door to shake his hand.

"The best ever legislation that ever went through the Dáil was the smoking ban. Radical. Absolutely radical," another man cutting his lawn says.

If there's supposed to be a backlash against the Government for bringing in the ban, it certainly isn't in evidence in fact the contrary.

"It's coming up very well here. People are volunteering it here and I am getting that in most places, with very few negative comments. The chronic smoker is not happy but the overwhelming majority are extremely positive and even lighter smokers are saying they are smoking less as a result of it," Micheál says.

Finishing off the last few houses in Endsleigh, the canvassing team are approached by a women walking her dog.

"You should be put on a pedestal for making our country smoke-free, I think it was one of the best things to happen in the country," she says. While the woman praises the minister, her Cavalier spaniel proceeds to dig at the grass and does its business. Terry doesn't bring up pooper scoopers.

Politics is all about timing and knowing when to keep your mouth shut.