Champagne Charlie seals visit with a kiss

KISSING women of a certain age, and donning Bono-like sunglasses, Champagne Charlie McCreevy was at his man-of-the-people best in Carlow yesterday.

The finance minister admitted he felt very "blessed among women" as he cantered through the streets of Carlow yesterday morning, joined by the town's six Fianna Fáil local election candidates four of whom are women.

"In Kildare County Council we also have seven or eight women candidates out of 18 or 19. Carlow and Kildare are definitely leading the way in my party. The number of women on our ticket is greater than ever in my life in politics.

"Four out of the six here are women and it's a sign of the times.

"It's the way things have been moving. Women are getting more involved in business and in the workforce and this trend in politics is just in accordance with what's happening in the rest of the world. In northern Europe, this wouldn't be extraordinary at all," he said. "It puts a bit of colour into the canvass and also makes for better candidates," the minister quipped.

And he wasn't afraid to show his feminine side either flanked by his four lady candidates.

"This is not something I do often," he said as he was glided into the ladies' boutique, Traffic, just across from Carpenter's pub on the busy thoroughfare through Carlow town.

Once inside, though, he felt right at home. "There are a few hats here alright that would be great for Ascot. Maybe I could be dragged back here," he said as he fixed a hat on the head of local candidate Lorraine Hynes and posed for pictures.

And as he posed for another picture, kissing fellow candidate Annie Parker-Byrne on the lips, he quipped: "This is one for Page 3, lads."

There was much support for the Finance Minister and very few heckles from among the voters he met on the gallop through the town. Eileen Geraghty managed to get a word with him at Bethany House, a home for the town's elderly.

The former nurse had a major axe to grind about the conditions at Naas General Hospital, where her father-in-law passed away last September. "The quality of nursing care he got there was fantastic, second to none. But I don't know how the staff worked in those conditions. Patients were completely stripped of their dignity and men and women shared just one toilet. I know there's a new wing in the hospital now, but the sooner that ward is closed, the better," she told the minister.

And resident Dick Deegan also had an axe to grind. "The cuckoo is three weeks late minister. What's Fianna Fáil going to do about that," he said, laughing and cracking jokes to all around him.

There was also plenty of chat on the whistle-stop visit about Carlow's imminent football clash with near neighbours, Laois.

"Did ye ever manage to get that matter with the boundary and the river sorted," the minister said, stirring it up among his party faithful. In Carlow town, Fianna Fáil holds three seats on the town council, with Fine Gael also holding three, Labour two and the PDs one. On the town council, it has four seats, followed by Fine Gael with three and the PDs with one. The party hopes to hold its own, if not improve, according to local TD MJ Nolan.

"We've not done any polls here, but we're out day and night and canvassing hard. The issues on the doorstep are all local ones about parking, the bypass for Carlow, the motorway to Dublin and the cost of housing." And as the matter of the dual carriageway to Dublin, the bypass for the town, parking and decentralisation were all put to bed for another canvass, for another town and for another day, the minister was the one with the last word.

"God, lads, isn't it great, the sunshine on our backs and the whole lot," said Mr McCreevy as he sat into his awaiting car for another day and another dollar.