This article is from page 3 of the 2006-11-14 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 3 JPG
FINE Gael leader Enda Kenny is predicting “a humdinger of an election” in Clare.
“There won’t be a house in County Clare that one or two or four of them won’t visit,” he said referring to the four Fine Gael candidates battling it out in the four-seater constituency.
The leader was facing criticism for adding two more names to the ticket following the convention, during his visit to the county last week.
During the hotly-contested convention, Deputy Pat Breen and former mayor of Shannon Cllr Tony Mulcahy were selected by the Clare delegates, but afterwards the names of former TD Cllr Madeleine Taylor Quinn and Cllr Joe Carey were added by the national executive.
Asked if this move woiuld scupper any chance of a second seat for the party in Clare, Deputy Kenny said, “I never presume to know what the good people of the Banner County are going to decide, that is their absolute remit, but we are going to give them choice. The situation we have in the Fine Gael party is that the executive council mandate the delegates, who are the members of the branch, one man one vote. Every member is entitled to a vote if they are registered for two years to cast their votes for a candidate and the convention selected two.
“The Fine Gael party then polled the constituency, looked at it subsequently and decided to make two additions.
He said the party did the same in Galway East and other constituencies.
“First of all, we are going to be guaranteed intense competition within the party for the votes of the Fine Gael electorate . . . and for those outside of that afterwards. And that is going to mean no effort will be left untouched as it were, to get out there in front of the electorate. We have evidence from the local elections and the European that that kind of internal competition brings out the highest volume of support,” he said, pointing to the success of Mairéad McGuinness and Avril Doyle in the Ireland East European Election.
Mr Kenny also pointed to the recent TG4 poll, which showed a nine per cent increase overall for Fine Gael.
“(It) puts us in the two-seat territory and what we have got to do here in Co. Clare is manage that strategy, so the transfers begin to fall properly and that is a matter for the election strategy committee here in Clare.
“I think this is going to be probably the most competitive and exciting general election campaign for very many years.”