Seeking votes down roads less travelled

AT ELECTION time, everything is local.

This is the first contest fought since the dual mandate ban barred members of the Dáil from holding onto council seats.

The four deputies seeking re-election in Cork North Central were all city councillors the last time they stood for office.

Now they are coming from Dublin to fight with a string of representatives still buoyant from local election victories two-years ago.

On the door steps the differences are being reflected in the concerns raised.

Fine Gael’s councillor Gerry Kelly has cornered the rural vote of the constituency. It is a slow trawl driving every boreen in Templemichael armed with the electoral register and his election partner, Tim Manley. This was a strong area in the local elections and he needs its support again.

“Roads are a big issue out here,” Mr Kelly said. “It is something you pick up a lot, especially the further you go from the city.”

A man gets off his lawnmower to greet him.

“You’re the only man who comes around this way, I have not seen one other person here,” he said.

It is more hotly contested in the city suburbs.

As the Fianna Fáil machine rolled into Castlejane, Glanmire, deputy Billy Kelleher is flanked by an army of canvassers micro-managed by his director of elections.

No longer being a councillor ties his hands when people speak about the need for speed ramps but the national issues soon come to the fore.

A man with a young family who lost his job in Motorola comes to the door. He is anxious a replacement company is found for friends who have not found work.

“Very few of us have got jobs. I got into EMC but they only took a few. There is work for some people but you have to travel so far, hopefully something will be done,” he said.

Down the road he is asked questions on future SSIA-type schemes from a woman whose account recently matured.

He admits it is a juggling exercise between local concerns and Dáil business.

“It is a bit of a disadvantage but you work around it. You have a cumann there and you have councillors so you are able to keep in touch. You would not survive if you ignored things on a local level,” he said.

And for the swing voter a candidate’s track record in the council chamber is more closely scrutinised, sometimes to the detriment of the local man.

“There is no way I would vote for Gerry Kelly. I was told inside in the council you voted for a house to be built up above without a boundary wall. I am a farmer, I have no problem with houses but they have to have boundary walls,” a Templemichael man said.

The vote in question did not take place and it is just malicious rumours spread by rival parties, he is assured by Mr Kelly, forced to defend his reputation.

With Dave McCarthy’s nomination adding another councillor to the battle in the constituency the work done in the council chamber could yet be enough to decide who sneaks the fourth and final seat.