Ring claims no seat in the Dáil is safe

OUT AND ABOUT Minister of State Michael Ring was on the canvass around Claremorris on Sunday last where he met with David Gibbons.?Pic: Michael McLaughlin

Neill O'Neill

THE bookmakers and people on the ground in Mayo are predicting re-election to DΡil Éireann for Michael Ring. The latest opinion polls say the same, but the Westport-based Minister of State is not resting on his laurels. Elected with a first count surplus for the first time in 2011, and now coming off the back of five years in Government, Michael Ring is approaching his sixth General Election from a different perspective, but while confidence might exude from some on his campaign, he, like all seeking election, refuses to show any complacency.
The annexing of some 10,000 south Mayo votes out of the constituency has him worried, and he has spent considerable time on the hustings in east Mayo in recent weeks, a region previously the gift of John O’Mahony, but one Ring now has to work for himself.
He always had a modest vote there, and will be hoping that his record of delivery to the region over the past five years will be rewarded, but he has to pick up many votes in the Claremorris hinterland to compensate for what he will have lost around Ballinrobe.
With Sinn Féin’s Rose Conway-Walsh providing strong opposition in Erris, an area where there is a general feeling Deputy Ring has also worked hard during this term in office, he admits that while there may be a perception that his is a safe seat, he has a fear that this could work against him.
An effort in the Fine Gael party to secure a third seat for Deputy Michelle Mulherin may also work against Ring in some areas, where he might otherwise feel confident of picking up the all important number ones votes on polling day. It has been suggested that party members right around the county are being asked to divert number one votes to the Ballina TD - a strategy has some members of Ring’s camp worried.

Work done
Leaving election tactics aside, Michael Ring’s record of delivery, something for which he has been criticised by outside agencies and media in the past five years, should see him elected in the early counts on February 27. An Irish Independent poll on Monday put him neck in neck with the Taoiseach. Politicians will tell you they don’t heed polls, but this one is likely accurate. The Taoiseach recorded a massive surplus of number ones in 2011, and were he to drop even several thousand votes as some predict, he will still be comfortably home. He is pressing for number two votes to go to Deputy Mulherin, but some voters will still opt for Deputy Ring, and while he may have some nervy moments, his track record and popularity should see him elected.
Any of the 16 candidates that you encounter will seek a number one, often on the grounds that some other candidate, strong in a particular area, is over the line already and therefore voting for them would be a waste of a number one. This is the one election tactic that drives fear into candidates. Why? It is proven to cost them votes.
“I am not interested in topping polls or beating anybody, all I am interested in is being reelected on February 26,” said Deputy Ring.
“Every vote in every ballot box will count and while I hope my record of delivery and hard work to Mayo in the past five years, and indeed the past 22 years in the DΡil and before that as a councillor, stands in my favour, the truth is that politics is a funny old business, it can be a ruthless business, and nobody is ever safe until the returning officer deems them elected,” he said.
Curiously, Michael Ring is favourite with the bookmakers to be the Ceann Comhairle in the 32nd DΡil. When this was put to him he said he had no idea where this notion is coming from.
“My only prioriity is getting elected, I am not thinking of anything beyond that. This is all speculation, nobody is elected yet. This is not even a distraction, I am only focusing on getting elected by the people of Mayo.”