*Senator Roisin Garvey (GP) and Emer O’Reilly.
GARDENS are admired and what can be done in small spaces as Senator Roisin Garvey (GP) canvasses in Ennis.
Fresh from organising a flash mob in the county town, Garvey refuels in Beo where she is thanked by Aoibhin Garrihy for advising her of the powering up grant in recent months.
Of the twenty Clare candidates, the Inagh woman has attracted the most national media attention. Prior and subsequent to being joined by The Clare Echo, she was accompanied by The Irish Independent’s Fionnan Sheehan and Tadhg McNally of The Irish Examiner.
Her canvassing team are wearing ‘Garvey Hats’ while Roisin is keen to discuss the varying temperatures of the November weather, the flooding on Clare roads and how she is a real fighting chance of becoming the first Green TD elected in Clare.
As she hits the first door, the lady of the house answers, “thankfully my husband is not here,” she admits. “You are very well up on everything and good to speak,” she said, a sentiment presumably not shared by her spouse.
“You’re not coming in to watch the match,” says an elderly gentleman as he opens the door of his home, only to realise it is people looking for his vote and not to avail of room on his couch. He is quickly won over by Garvey and even does some appealing to this writer to give the Green’s Deputy Leader a first preference vote. “It is the first time someone at the door has canvassed for me,” realises Garvey.
An undecided man who is self-employed is told of Roisin’s work on trying to get certain rates exemptions, “I was trying to put in a date for a rates waiver but Peter Burke was having none of it,” she says of the outgoing Minister for Enterprise. She has been vocal in her criticism of the Westmeath TD for failing to meet her in advance of the Budget.
A high vote is promised to Garvey by a father in his forties who reveals he is giving his first preference to a Senator but one by the name of Timmy Dooley (FF). “Fianna Fáil are on twenty two percent, I need all the number ones I can get,” says Roisin in launching her pitch.
Garvey is told she speaks with substance by a man who pointed out it is her second attempt to get into the lower house of Leinster House. “We’re no lords in the Upper House, we only get four TDs so we have to be especially careful with who pick,” she said. “I’ve been four and a half years in the Seanad, I’ve it all figured out,” Garvey declared.
“It’s mostly elder lemons around here,” a female pensioner says when discussing the housing estate with the Inagh woman. “Aren’t these estates lovely, why can’t we be build houses like this. I think a lot of older people are going to vote for me,” Roisin responds.
Another ‘elder lemon’ justifies this theory, “I’ll vote for you because it is the people I know that I vote for you and you’re a woman”. The need for the Ennis Town Bus is also highlighted to which Garvey announces that it will be run every half hour for eighteen hours a day at different locations on the approaches to the town. “We’ll be on the bus,” comes the delighted reaction from the woman.
As Garvey makes her way around with her team of canvassers, a door opens “I recognise the voice,” says the lady who then praises Roisin for The Cheese Press in Ennistymon, a café run by her sister Sinead, “I love the restaurant”. She said, “I will definitely give you some number” to which Garvey pleads, “I need your number ones”.
There’s banana trees and fig trees in a well-utilised space of the garden of the next Ennis house. “A million gardens is a forest, if everyone had a garden like this then the biodiversity crisis would be sorted”.
Grants for playgrounds in small estates have been secured by the Greens in Government, Roisin tells the mother of a young family while encouraging her to set up a residents committee to put the wheels in motion. “I’m working hard for children, did ye see the joint pencils I designed,” she told two primary school students. A conversation begins as Gaeilge where a young girl speaks of her enjoyment at walking to school and how cars are bad for the environment.
Lack of funding for private nursing homes and the risk of their closure is flagged to the Senator. “I’ll question all this and find out if it’s true,” she responds.
Eamon Ryan’s (GP) role as party leader left a lot to be desired admitted a straight-talking female pension who describes him as “that parrot”. It prompts Garvey to claim she and Roderic O’Gorman (GP) have done well since their appointments while she also praised the work done by Ryan.
Installation of a stair lift is hailed by a woman who has reduced mobility, “I paid €700 for the stair lift, I’ll get the tax back when I’m dead no doubt,” she quipped.
Mortgage advisor Emer O’Reilly is directing the canvass for Garvey in Ennis. “She has a fire in her and is a worker. A strong women is needed in the Dáil for Clare,” she said while pointing out how the public warm to Roisin on the door.
It’s a strong and recognisable voice, now Roisin needs a vote to match it.
