No third TD would be ’a disaster’

No third TD would be ‘a disaster’

Michael Duffy

THE Director of Elections for the Taoiseach-in-waiting, Deputy Enda Kenny, in the Mayo constituency, Senator Paddy Burke, has admitted that it would be a ‘disaster’ for Fine Gael, and the people of Mayo, if a third TD for the party is not elected on May 24.
Senator Burke said that he had no doubt Fine Gael would pick up seats all over the country, adding that the people of Mayo would be ‘shooting themselves in the foot’ if they don’t elect a third FG TD in the county.
“Can you imagine if Fine Gael were just one seat short of forming a Government and the people of Mayo had not given the leader a third seat in his own constituency? That’s the question the people of the county have to ask themselves over the next month. The people of Ballina and east Mayo have great Fine Gael candidates to support, and if they support them they will be helping to insure we have a Taoiseach here in Mayo in June,” stated Senator Burke.
Senator Burke also admitted that the party’s constituency executive have a plan in place to ensure that the anticipated large first preference vote for Deputy Kenny and his colleague Michael Ring will transfer substantially to the other two candidates, John O’Mahony and Michelle Mulherin.
“The transfer of votes is a matter for the constituency executive and they have a strategic plan in place to ensure all four of our candidates benefit from our transfers.”
In response to the percentage of people (45 per cent) who stated their preference for Enda Kenny to be Taoiseach in The Mayo News/Millward Brown IMS Poll, Senator Burke said he had no doubt that the figure would rise substantially over the next month.
“The reality is that a lot of the electorate only really start to engage with the election now that a date has been announced and I believe anyone in Mayo who has not made up their mind will look at the candidates and say, ‘I can actually vote for the next Taoiseach here’. This will be a long campaign and I believe the closer we get to the election date itself, the more and more people will choose to vote Enda Kenny.  I believe the people of Castlebar are fully behind Enda Kenny and he will probably picking up floating votes all over the county.”
However, Deputy Kenny’s Director of Elections warned the Mayo public not to expect to see too much of the Castlebar man in the flesh over the coming weeks.
“The reality of the situation is that people in all 43 constituencies will want to see Enda Kenny over the next month and he will probably only be able to get out and canvass in Mayo possibly twice, over the next week and towards the end of the campaign. But I can assure the Mayo public that we, his team, will be out there knocking on doors and listening to the concerns of the people. Enda is fully aware what the people of this county need and if he is the next Taoiseach he will do his level best to address those concerns,” added Senator Burke, who stated that the Fine Gael leader is not interested in topping the poll here in Mayo.
“Enda has topped the poll more times than he cares to remember and he is not concerned with ego trips. He wants Fine Gael to top get three seats, or even, four seats in Mayo, that’s his goal in this constituency.”