Independence a labour of love for Murphy

NORTH Kildare needs “a player on the pitch, not a hurler on the ditch”, says Aine Brady, the Fianna Fail candidate in Friday’s by- election.

The constituency is a three-seater, with Labour and Fine Gael holding one apiece with Emmet Stagg and Bernard Durkan respectively. The remaining seat, vacated by former Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy when he left for Brussels, needs to be retained by Fianna Fail so that the area can continue to have a voice in government, Brady argues.

The bookmakers have installed Independent councillor Catherine Murphy as favourite to take the seat, although there is little by way of numbers to suggest she is a safe bet.

The winning candidate is going to need many transfers to push him or her over the finishing line. At this point, it would appear that Labour’s Paddy McNamara, the second favourite, has a better chance in this regard, his party having put in place a vote-transfer pact with Fine Gael. If the parties work the pact accordingly - that is, convince voters to abide by it - McNamara should get the bulk of the votes of the Fine Gael candidate, Darren Scully, once the latter is counted out of the race.

That is the Labour Party’s hope, at least. But Catherine Murphy believes the bookmakers have got it right to make her favourite.

“I’d rather be the favourite than an also-ran,” she says. “You don’t end up being favourite for no reason. And what I’ve going for me are 17 years as a public representative at local level.”

Murphy was first elected to Leixlip Town Council in 1988, and to Kildare County Council in 1991. She has experience of running for the Dáil, having stood unsuccessfully in three general elections.

The issues she is campaigning on have dominated the campaign from the start: better schools, affordable childcare, and improved public transport.

But if elected, what power would she have to secure such facilities and services? The Fianna Fail-PD coalition government needed the support of the Independents in the last Dáil; it has no such need this time round, meaning the Independents have little real leverage.

Murphy’s answer fails to convince.

The Independents, she says, “are community advocates, if you like”.

“That’s the kind of politics I want to see - cut out a lot of what is a game, and go directly towards the issues. The Independents are always working on a network, and I think that kind of networking would be very important. Electing me would send shockwaves through the whole political establishment.”

Well, no, not really. But it would upset the big parties, not least Labour. Why? Because Murphy was a former member, who left two years ago when the party failed to nominate her for the Seanad. Labour could be left ruing that decision this weekend.