Sinn Fein seeks smooth road to breakthrough

It was roads in 1991, but if there is an outstanding issue in the Cavan local elections of 1999, it may be whether Sinn Fein can make inroads in a county where it was shut out last time around.

Cavan is a blot on Sinn Fein's record - the only Border county and the only one in Ulster in which the party does not have a single elected representative at local level.

But even though only 3,500 of Mr Caoimhghin O Caolain's 11,500-vote general election landslide in Cavan-Monaghan came from this half of the constituency, Sinn Fein will be hopeful that some of its eight candidates can benefit.

The potholes issue has waned a little recently as money became available, a fact reflected in the fragmentation of CRAG, the protest group which took four of the county council's 25 seats in 1991.

But Sinn Fein has seen sufficient leverage in it to produce a costly report on the problem last year, packed with photographs of the local TD posing in or adjacent to many of Cavan's most infamous features.

If the tactic succeeds, it will most likely be to the benefit of the party's former county councillor Mr Charlie Boylan; while Cootehill - closest to Mr O Caolain's north Monaghan base - offers the best prospects in the urban polls.

Outside a Sinn Fein blip, the Cavan elections should be business as usual for Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, which hold 11 and nine seats respectively on the outgoing county council. They also shared the chair, courtesy of a pact: whether there will be a repeat depends chiefly on whether Fianna Fail can succeed in its stated aim of winning 13 seats and an overall majority.

This would be a return to the pre-1991 position, before the condition of the roads and the budget cuts under the last Haughey government cost it at the polls. But the party needs to pick up seats in two of three county areas - Cavan, Bailieborough and Ballyjamesduff - to win a majority.

Fine Gael TD Mr Andrew Boylan leads the party's campaign in Cavan, the only Dail deputy contesting the locals; while Labour's sole representative in the elections is Mr Des Cullen, contesting the Cavan area for the county and urban councils. Defending a seat in the latter, he is a long shot for the former.

Of the CRAG county coucillors, Mr Matthew Fitzpatrick and Mr Winston Turner are running again in Belturbet and Bailieborough respectively; while in the Cavan area schoolteacher Ms Dolores Smith is also defending her seat but as a general Independent.