Gloves off as contestants push for final seat
Ms Sinnott said if people choose between a Fianna Fáil candidate or herself, she will get the vote. This was nothing personal against Mr Collins, just the fact that she was attracting more of an anti-Government vote, she said.
"People in his (Gerry Collins's) own home town have come up to me and said: 'It's time for him to come home, we need a change', and this has been totally spontaneous," Ms Sinnott said.
But Mr Collins refused to be drawn on his rival's comments.
"I don't wish to engage in any personal criticism of any candidate involved in this election," said the 65-year-old Abbeyfeale man.
Both candidates were putting in an intense canvass in north Cork over the past two days. The latest opinion poll shows Ms Sinnott with 15% of first preference votes, just one point ahead of Mr Collins.
Sinn Féin candidate David Cullinane is next on 8% and it is likely that his transfers will decide who gets the seat.
Ms Sinnott believes she is more likely to benefit from the Sinn Féin transfers, since they are both opposed to the proposed EU constitution. "And I should also benefit from their transfers, because I am seen as a protest candidate and I am not Fianna Fáil," she said.
But Gerry Collins disputes this. "Sinn Féin transfers cannot be taken for granted by anybody. Sinn Féin supporters will decide what to do," he said.
Last time, almost 20,000 of Sinn Féin's transfers did not go to any candidate, with Independent Pat Cox, Labour and Fine Gael benefiting from the remaining 16,534 transfers. Fianna Fáil did not get any Sinn Féin transfers.
Canvassing in Mallow yesterday, Ms Sinnott said she believed her support has increased since the first opinion poll because people identify with the campaigns she has undertaken for ordinary people.
Defending her pro-life position, Ms Sinnott said it applied right across the board from the baby in the womb to protecting old people.
"This is coming from someone who found myself pregnant, penniless and helpless. I knew the baby I had after Jamie might be disabled, but I heard a little voice saying I am here," she said.
Meanwhile, outside Mallow in nearby Dromahane, Gerry Collins was targeting the rural vote and telling householders that Fianna Fáil was the party that could best represent their needs in Europe.
Local retired primary school teacher John Joe Kavanagh welcomed Mr Collins with: "You're a long time on the road." To which the veteran campaigner replied: "It is the old dog for the hard road."
But back in Cork city, where Labour's Euro candidate Brendan Ryan was canvassing in his traditional north-side stomping ground, people were more worried about housing, security for the elderly and bad planning.
The Labour candidate is putting in a massive push in the next two days to improve his disappointing poll ratings that show him at just 4% with no chance of taking the last seat.
"Make a difference not a protest, that is what I am asking people to do in voting for me, because if they vote for Independent Kathy Sinnott or Sinn Féin they can make no difference in Europe or at home," Mr Ryan said.
The Labour Party has a chance of being in government here again and in Europe they are aligned to one of the biggest parties the Party of European Socialists which has delivered a good health and education system throughout the EU, Mr Ryan said.
The Labour candidate also said Sinn Féin offered the electorate promises it could not deliver, because they have no chance of being in government here.
'They implemented the Hanly report in government in the North by shutting down Dungannon hospital," Mr Ryan claimed.
Sinn Féin candidate David Cullinane will be given a chance to answer these allegations on the campaign trail tomorrow.
Whatever about the row between Labour and Sinn Féin, one clear thing emerged yesterday: Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has every reason to be worried.
He believes it would be insane if Fianna Fáil lost its two seats with almost 50% of the vote in South.
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