Bin there, done that. Daly rallies commuterville

COLLECTIONS of toys, bicycles and footballs littered across petite front gardens behind knee-high walls.

This is ‘commuterville’, the place where the children of the Pope’s Children so poignantly depicted in suburbia by author David McWilliams are now growing up.

Many of the gardens are patchy, young, and lack any real green growth or maturity.

Similarly, residents in many of these North Co Dublin towns are forced to cope with underdeveloped basic services, and are battling to secure facilities like transport, crèche places, and youth facilities for their growing children.

These are the bread and butter issues being thrown at TDs on the doorsteps.

Socialist Party councillor Clare Daly has campaigned tirelessly for years in growing towns like Rush, Skerries, Balbriggan and Swords.

In this wide-open constituency of 100,000 people, Green Party leader Trevor Sergeant is the only incumbent TD running. His seat is guaranteed.

Daly’s job is to gather the disgruntled votes previously lapped up by Fianna Fáil’s Jim Glennon and GV Wright, both now out of the contest.

“There are so many new faces, but where were all these guys before,” comments the stout contender about her competitors.

Rallying alongside her party leader Joe Higgins, Daly has shot up the political ranks.

Her fight against the bin tax saw the mother-of-one spend a month behind bars.

Her work as an Aer Lingus trade union shop steward has not gone unnoticed in north Dublin either.

Rush is a small coastal town with a population of 8,286. Knocking on doors with her small but committed campaign team, Daly greets young parents with a smile but also with cold candour. Mothers put fingers to their lips as newborns sleep upstairs.

“I led the battle against the bin tax,” she tells a young voter.

“It makes no difference to me to be honest,” replies constituent Dillon McCormack from his hallway. “Why?” quips back Daly.

“’Cos I still have to pay the bin tax,” replies the Rush resident.

And this is essentially the battle Daly will face in the last few estates she canvasses before May 24.

The Socialist Party fought the bin tax and lost. The working class party fight big business, but are they offering a real alternative for voters?

They pledge radical change, but are unwilling to hold up any Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael party administration as partners in Government. This means Daly is destined for the backbenches even if she secures the necessary votes.

“The sharp issue is the infrastructure deficit here,” explains Daly, between doorways, as the rain tumbles down on parked cars.

And it may be this ‘quality of life’ issue that drives Daly through to be elected. Certainly, the daily four-hour round trip commute for motorists in these towns to the city is doing no favours for the candidates from the parties in power.

Having represented the Swords ward in North Fingal as a councillor since 1999, Daly is not lacking the experience.

She could unnerve any future minister, fighting issues for her constituents.

In the 2002 general election, she also polled 5,501 first preference votes — an increase of 85% on 1997 — and just narrowly missed being elected, left in fifth place after Fianna Fáil’s GV Wright. More recently, in the 2004 local elections, she topped the poll in Swords and was easily re-elected with 2,763 first preference votes.

At the end of the day, really, all the signs say Joe Higgins will have a party colleague sitting next to him when the 30th Dáil commences this summer.