Pep in Enda’s step as finish line in sight
“That man is going to be the Taoiseach of the country in a few more days so you better get your photo taken with him,” said her mother nudging her forward.
Ellen looked unimpressed as the Fine Gael leader posed with her and her three-year-old brother Sean.
“We’ll get that picture. For when they’re older,” said their mother.
By the time they grow up this man will have gone down in the history books for reasons, good or bad, that we are soon to find out.
The top job that has slipped from his grasp in the past now looks within easy reach. And Enda has a pep in his step as the day draws closer.
Like the Pied Piper, Enda’s entourage has been growing in size as election day draws closer.
It now includes foreign media, observing the curiously Irish political art of pounding the pavements from churches to shopping centres to community centres.
It includes more Irish media observing the man who’ll lead the country into a crucial period in its history.
It includes more and more jubilant party supporters holding up election posters on sticks.
And it includes anxious handlers, growing nervous as the finishing line gets closer, protecting their man from any last minute slip-ups.
But Enda seems oblivious to it all. He marches on with a smile on his face leading the crowd and whistling to the tune of his Five Point Plan.
When grannies tell him about their apple-tart making skills, he puts his arm around them and tells them he has a Five Point Plan. When women take time out from their shopping to talk to him, he tells them about his Five Point Plan.
And even eight-month-old Emma Brady got a lesson in it yesterday. Enda took the shocked-looking little one in his hands and asked her: “Do you know the Five Point Plan?” as though it was a Sesame Street number song.
Bouncing her up and down to each word, he repeated: “Five. Point. Plan.”
It was high fives all around for Enda earlier in the morning when he got down with the youth wing of the party at Dublin’s Grand Canal Theatre.
Putting young people at the heart or recovery was the theme of Fine Gael’s campaign yesterday as more jobs, work placements and education promises were made in the party’s youth manifesto. Within its first 100 days in office, it will introduce a “job creation bill” to establish 5,000 graduate internship places, lower the 13.5% VAT rate to 12% and half the 8.5% PRSI rate.
Speaking at the launch, Enda pulled no punches in warning any ministers in his Cabinet would be sacked if they did not perform.
One of those who’ll be scrambling for a position is Dublin South Central TD Catherine Byrne who was not sparing the flattery of her boss as she took him around her home turf in Crumlin. “I brought this handsome man in to see you,” she exclaimed as she greeted a gathering of older ladies.
“He’s not my man at all,” one lady remarked before pulling Ms Byrne aside to ask: “Do you like him really?”
“I do” said Catherine. “No, seriously, do you actually like him?”
“He’s an honest and decent man,” said Ms Byrne.
As they got to the community centre at St Agnes Church, Christina O’Callaghan wished Enda the best of luck: “You know you’re going into a black hole anyway, there’s no question about that.”
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