The competition between
Fine Gael candidates in what was once their heartland is getting riciculous. There are now full size billboard posters of all three of the constituency, er, colleagues and in some cases (e.g.
Booterstown DART station) they are facing each other across the platform. This is the constituency that once "boasted" three Fine Gael TDs -
Seán Barrett,
Monica Barnes and
Liam Cosgrave but after the last election they were reduced to zero with the Greens, PDs and Labour taking one each and Fianna Fáil taking two.
The starter of this mini war was
John Bailey a local Councillor who seems to have devoted his life and fortune to becoming a backbench TD. His van and various cars with his name and photo plastered all over them can be seen at all times in all areas of the constituency. He is the ultimate constituency man. This was followed by the Cathaoirleach of
DLR County Council,
Eugene Regan who, up until recently, has been satisified distributing leaflets claiming greatness for three reasons - an endorsement from former Taoiseach
Garret "the good" FitzGerald, an endorsement from the former chairman of BP and ultra right winger
Peter Sutherland and, bizarrely, the fact that he has recently become a Senior Counsel. I cannot understand why anyone would feel more encouraged to vote for someone who had promoted themselves to being a senior counsel - it is not as if some eminent group had appointed him - it is simply a procedure that barristers do to move on in their profession and hopefully make more money. The final entrant to the poster war was Seán Barrett the only candidate who has ever been a TD but who surely is getting on a bit for an, er, dynamic, er, young party such as Fine Gael.
The problem with all this expenditure is that because the election has not yet been called it is outside the remit of the legal spending limits thus discriminating against any candidate (from any party or independent) who does not have recourse to large funds.
This war between the Fine Gael candidates is ridiculous and does nothing to impress whatever potential voters the
blueshirts might have had. It seems odd that they don't pay more attention to the most successful party leader they had in modern times (Garret) who was an expert vote manager and tactician and always managed to get Fine Gael more seats then their percentage of the vote should have given them.
