Sinn Féin TD Mark Ward is accustomed to all sorts of local problems and issues coming up while knocking on doors during an election campaign.
But even the Dublin Mid-West representative gets caught by surprise with an unexpected question.
“Would you not be better off going independent?” a middle-aged woman asks him while canvassing around Rowlagh Park in Clondalkin, west Dublin.
Taken aback, Ward (49) responds: “Myself? Absolutely not. I’m a proud Sinn Féin republican.”
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Ward, who was previously a behavioural therapist, later admits this is the first time ever such a proposal has been put to him during his political career.
The woman is critical of Sinn Féin for appearing to align alongside the government parties while raising her concerns around immigration, in particular “people coming over with no passports”.
Ward is clear that his party is “not in government”, adding “we didn’t get in” at the last general election in 2020. He points out that Dublin Mid-West was the only constituency in the capital that time to run two Sinn Féin candidates – himself and the party’s housing spokesperson, Eoin Ó Broin.
On immigration, Ward says the current system is not working and his party’s policy is that if a person has “a right to be here, you should be looked after and you should be given everything the State can give you so you make a positive contribution to society.
“But if you haven’t got a right to be here, a decision needs to be made quite quickly,” he says.
While the woman does not indicate how she will vote this Friday, her assessment of Sinn Féin is in the minority in the working-class area where Ward grew up.
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The TD, first elected in a 2019 byelection caused by the election of Fine Gael’s Frances Fitzgerald to the European Parliament, says he is “confident” of retaining his seat in this constituency which has grown from a four- to a five-seater. It covers an area from Fettercairn in Tallaght to Saggart to Palmerston.
He is encouraged by a recent Irish Times/Ipsos B & A poll in which Fine Gael’s share of the vote fell by six points to 19 per cent and Sinn Féin rose by a point to 20 per cent.
“Momentum is building, the response we’re getting on the doors is starting to get to 2020 levels,” says Ward.
“We’re starting to see that response… that people want a change and they see Sinn Féin as the change they’re wanting to bring in.”
Back on the doors, Mick Tomney (73), who has been living in the estate for about 45 years, says he will be giving his first and second preference to Sinn Féin.
“We definitely need a change of government,” he says. “The two parties have cosied up together, the Civil War parties, and you wouldn’t think there were two parties there at all.
“We need a change and to give Sinn Féin and whoever else they can cobble up together a chance. They can’t do any worse than what the other crowd are doing.”
Tony McLafferty (50), originally from Glasgow and living in Ireland for more than 20 years, tells Ward: “Anything is better than what we have already.”
McLafferty says he usually votes for Sinn Féin, adding “years ago we needed some stuff done and every person who came to the door councillor wise, we asked them and they [Sinn Féin] were the only ones who helped us out”.
Lorraine O’Sullivan, who has been living in the area for almost 30 years, cites antisocial behaviour and discarded nitrous oxide (laughing gas) canisters on nearby green fields as her main issues.
O’Sullivan says she is a long-time Sinn Féin supporter and that Ward and Ó Broin have “always been very good to us – anything we want them to do, they have done”.
Ward says housing, health, the cost of living and disability services for children have been the dominant topics raised while campaigning over recent weeks.
The expectation is that Ó Broin, Ward and Fine Gael’s junior minister Emer Higgins will hold on to their seats in the constituency with Gino Kenny (People Before Profit), Shane Moynihan (Fianna Fáil), Paul Gogarty (Independent) and Francis Timmons (Labour) in the running for the final two.
Ward says his party was considering running a third candidate in the constituency at one stage but members decided against it following the local elections when Sinn Féin secured just five out of 40 seats on South Dublin City Council in June, despite fielding 21 candidates.
“We have had worse days but we have also had better days,” says Ward.
Even at the start of the general election campaign there was “a certain sense of apathy” in some areas but “you could see that lifting over the last couple of days”, he says.
“People are only really starting to think about the election now because we’re coming up to it. People are looking for that change and feel we are the only party that can bring it about.”
A woman in her 70s, who asks not to be named, says she has “absolutely no idea” who she will vote for. She explains that she is caring for her husband but is unable to avail of the carer’s allowance.
The woman describes her situation as “absolutely shocking” and adds that she had to previously fight to get a medical card.
“I just think nobody listens,” she says.
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