Running ‘mates’ ready for prize fight

Political Correspondent Fionnán Sheahan reports on the healthy competition between two European candidates.

NOTHING like a parachute candidate to add a razor sharp edge to proceedings.

Judging by the healthy competition between Avril Doyle and Mairead McGuinness, the Fine Gael election campaign in Leinster promises to be quite a match-up.

The subtle battle for profile between the FG candidates in the re-named East constituency provided an interesting side-show to the Fine Gael Árd Fheis.

Common sense would suggest that there is only one Fine Gael seat in Leinster, and the party has two high-profile candidates, Ms Doyle, the poll-topping MEP and former junior minister, and Ms McGuinness, the popular broadcaster and journalist, going all out to secure it.

The jockeying for position actually began on the approach to the Citywest Hotel in Saggart, Co Dublin. While Ms Doyle’s campaign team had put up election posters on lamp posts targeting delegates travelling to the conference, Ms McGuinness’s supporters were up to speed with a series of portable posters on the junctions coming off the main roads approaching the venue.

In making her introduction of Ms Doyle to chair the second part of the morning’s televised session, fellow Euro candidate, Cllr Madeleine Taylor-Quinn, alluded to the MEP being in the news during the past week, before explaining that she was referring to her activities on behalf of Credit Unions in the European Parliament in Brussels.

Immensely more prominent in the headlines was Ms Doyle’s dalliance with the Dublin District Court when a bench warrant was issued for her arrest after she failed to show up for her road traffic charges case. The public resonance of the event was not lost on the MEP.

“Thank you Madeleine, I was wondering what you were going to say about: ‘In this last week’,” Ms Doyle said, before cheerfully going on to introduce Ms McGuinness as her running mate.

Perish the thought that’s it is intended to show up her running mates recent arrival on the political scene, but Ms Doyle’s election slogan goes: “Because experience counts.”

Certainly Ms Doyle’s political savvy was shown in the shrewd stunt she pulled as the session dealt with a motion in support of the introduction of directly elected mayors. Going off script, she said she sensed that not all councillors would be in favour of the proposal and invited anyone up to speak for a minute against it.

Long-serving Kildare County Councillor Rainsford Hendy duly volunteered and the motion was subsequently defeated.

The support of your party’s councillors is regarded as crucial for the European elections, as local election candidates cover the door-to-door ground that Euro candidates cannot possibly canvass, so this appeasement of Fine Gael’s local representatives was interpreted as a clever tactic.

Yet later in the afternoon, as she chaired the agriculture policy session, Ms McGuinness was warmly welcomed to Fine Gael by speakers from the floor, who said that her arrival had instilled confidence in the party across the country.

THE North-West and East are the only constituencies where Fine Gael are running two candidates. Unlike their counterparts in Connacht-Ulster and Clare, Jim Higgins and Madeleine Taylor-Quinn, notably not all the Leinster candidates election material calls for transfers to be passed on to their running mate.

Fine Gael have a standard European election poster. At the top in large green print on white background is the candidates name with “Vote No 1” written beside it. At the foot of Jim Higgins’ poster, it says: “Vote No 2 Madeleine Taylor-Quinn.” At the foot of Madeleine Taylor-Quinn’s poster it says: “Vote No 2 Jim Higgins.”

At the foot of the Avril Doyle and Mairead McGuinness posters it says nothing of the sort.

The lack of an endorsement is conspicuous by its absence.

Also, the North-West constituency has been divided up completely between Senator Higgins and Cllr Taylor-Quinn and the candidates appear to be working well together.

During a cordial exchange on RTE’s Saturday View, the Leinster candidates explained that it would not be possible to divide up their constituency. Adopting the same argument as Fianna Fail’s Brian Crowley in resisting a divide with his colleague Gerry Collins in Munster, Ms McGuinness explained that it was up to voters to decide who to elect for an area that ran from Carlingford in Louth to Carnsore in Wexford.

Strange really, considering it appears to be quite simple to draw a line across the middle of the country and direct the Wexford-based Ms Doyle to stay to the south of the division and the Louth and Meath-based Ms McGuinness to stay to the north of it. Fianna Fáil have adopted this strategy with junior minister Liam Aylward from Kilkenny and FF parliamentary party chairman Seamus Kirk from Louth.

Taking the claws out, references were made though to the candidates encroachments into their colleagues territories.

During the week, Ms Doyle was campaiging in Ms McGuinness’s heartland of Louth and she has been championing her roots in Longford as a member of the local well-known Belton family. Responding in kind, Ms McGuinness said she hadn’t been on her holidays when she was in Wexford.

Originally from Ardee in Co Louth, Ms McGuinness now lives in Co Meath, prompting Ms Doyle to comment cattily that she couldn’t distinguish how many counties her running mate was claiming and querying whether she was from Louth or Meath. But Ms McGuinness retorted that she wasn’t staking a claim on Wexford.

The afternoon sunshine drew the crowds out to the front of the Citywest Hotel where a fleet of buses and jeeps, decked out in European election candidate material rolled up the driveway. Making her staged arrival, Ms McGuinness was greeted by a troop of about 100 supporters who cheered wildly for their girl.

All over Citywest, Ms McGuinness’s supporters could be seen wearing her stickers and lapel badges, including former Fine Gael general secretary and RTÉ farming broadcaster Jim Miley and his brother, the former programme manager for Ivan Yates when he was Agriculture Minister and present Teagasc executive, Michael Miley.

While Ms Doyle also had her bus in the vicinity, wags observing the scene passed remarks about the unlikelihood of the MEP driving it herself.

At the party leader’s address, Ms McGuinness won in the fashion stakes by changing into an eye catching red linen suit for the occasion but Ms Doyle won the race to get up on the podium first to be seen shaking the hand of Enda Kenny after he finished.

The race for Europe is a different chase entirely.