Carey wins a second term in the dáil

THE day of the 2007 General Election count was a long and nervy one for Joe Carey, but from early last Saturday it was clear that he would have another stint in Dáil Éireann.
When he arrived at the count centre with his wife, Grace, he was delighted with his own showing.
“I’ve managed to increase my vote by a third, I topped the poll in the Ennis area with three and a half thousand votes. It was a huge performance, all credit to my team, to my director of elections, Martin Lynch, my friends and supporters around the county, I’m indebted to them.”
He was also delighted with the party’s performance, as it comfortably retained both its seats. “We ran a huge campaign right across the county. I had 50 to 60 people out supporting me and the Fine Gael team. We maximised our vote and we managed to achieve something in the region of 42 or 43%, an increase of about 7% on the last election. Pat did extremely well and Tony also got a very good vote.”
On Saturday evening Fine Gael members at the centre were debating the wisdom of not running a fourth candidate and questioning if a third seat could have been won if that strategy had been followed.
In Mr Carey’s view, adding that third seat was always unlikely, either with three or four candidates and the comfortable retention of two was a very good outcome.
“It was a very difficult ask [adding a third seat] when you look at the strong performance of the Labour party. The last time Labour won a seat in Clare it was at the expense of Fine Gael, back in 1992 when Madeleine Taylor Quinn lost her seat. We stood our ground in Fine Gael, we expanded our vote and it shouldn’t be understated how well Fine Gael has done in this constituency.”
While Mr Carey and everyone in his party were rejoicing last Saturday night after an outstanding showing, the honeymoon period for the next government will be almost non-existent, given the appalling state of the country’s economy.
Mr Carey acknowledged that there is a lot of work to be done, and even before all the results were in he was predicting a Labour/FG coalition.
“Fine Gael and Labour will provide a strong, coherent Government. We have plans and policies that we want to implement in Government and we have worked well with Labour in the past. The last time we were in Government we were creating a thousand jobs a week and we left the country in surplus for the first time in our history. We have a record of working together.”
The election was fought almost entirely on the economy and there is no doubt that how the next administration deals with the country’s finances will determine how it is judged.
Mr Carey acknowledged that the creation of jobs is the biggest challenge and he also said that during the campaign he had been surprised by the number of stories of emigration he had encountered.
“The key issue in Clare and throughout Ireland is the creation of jobs and giving opportunities to young people to stay here. I was absolutely stunned by the amount of young people who have left.
“I called to one house where there were five children and three of them are gone now, one to Canada, one to Australia and one to England. It’s very unfortunate that they felt they had to go because of the lack of opportunity. This Government’s task is to provide these very well educated young people an opportunity to stay here and to make a contribution to his country.”
While the county’s 16 general election candidates had a few tough weeks, it was no easier for their partners. Mr Carey’s wife Grace said that things had been busy.
“It’s a nerve wrecking time, the campaign, but I guess you’re so busy you don’t think about it much, you concentrate on the task at hand. We have a baby girl who is 20 months old and she hasn’t see much of her mammy and daddy for the last couple of months but hopefully it’ll all be worthwhile.”
Like several of the other canvassers, she was struck by the level of interest in the election. “I found that out of all the campaigns I’ve been involved in that people were the most engaged. There was a lot of debate on the doorsteps, it was really interesting.”