A sizeable cohort of voters remains undecided and their votes could prove crucial, Fianna Fáil leader, Micheál Martin predicted this morning as he voted in his Cork South Central constituency.
Accompanied by his wife Mary and first-time voters, son, Micheal Aodh (21) and daughter, Aoibhe (19), Mr Martin made the short journey from his home at in Ballinlough to St Anthony's Boys National School to cast his vote at 9.30am in the now four-seat constituency.
Surrounded by TV cameras, Mr Martin looked relaxed as he stopped to answer questions from reporters curious to get his thoughts on how the day and the election might pan out.
“I am not going to make any predictions but I am hopeful that we will get a good result - it’s up to the people now to decide but it was quite clear to us even yesterday on the campaign trail that there are quite a number of people who still have to make their mind up,” he said.
“In fact, it was quite striking how many people still hadn’t made their minds up. They were asking basic questions around policy terms. I think there’s been a lot of activity on the ground and I would like to think that would manifest itself in a good turnout.”
Asked to comment on the consensus that he, as Fianna Fáil leader, had had a good election campaign, Mr Martin agreed that was the view but said the real test would be the votes and seats that Fianna Fáil Fail wins in the country’s 40 constituencies.
“I never take that for granted - anyone with any experience of elections knows we will be out today and about making sure that people get out to vote and that we can maximise the number of votes we can win and the number of seats we can win,” he said.
“But that said, I want to take the opportunity to thank all of our headquarters staff, all of our thousands of volunteers across the country, who put in a huge effort, who have been texting and emailing and facebooking me throughout the campaign.
"There was a nice letter read out on RTÉ this morning- a lot of people put their heads above the parapet in our democracy - fair play to every candidate who is going forward - that's the essence of our parliamentary democracy which I care an awful lot about and is very important to us.
“There are many parts of the world don’t have democracy and despite its imperfections, the idea that every citizen of this country has a voice in the future government of their country is very important and I would urge people to go out and vote irrespective of whom they wish to vote for.”
Mr Martin said that notwithstanding the arduous nature of the campaign, with major media interviews every day, he enjoyed it and the opportunity to engage with the electorate.
“We’d like to think we knocked on every door in this constituency and there will be investigations afterwards if every door wasn’t knocked on albeit myself and Michael (McGrath) would have had arrangements in terms of whole areas and that, he joked.
“But it is striking that we picked up a sense from those whose doors we knocked on that they didn’t meet too many canvassers - and I can’t be political here - but that might speak to maybe a lack of energy in other campaigns but we can reflect on that later.
“Maybe I am old fashioned I just love the engagement on the doorstep and I think you get a lot (more) from people in the privacy of their own homes than you will in the streets and there’s different types of canvassing.
“The next election begins after this one and it doesn’t all rest on the campaign and I would have been knocking on doors all over this country for the last five years, I did it for two years before the local elections, I went out with new candidates to get them going literally in their own local areas.
“But that gave me a great knowledge base in terms of where people are coming from and it helped me in Dáil Eireann with some of the presentations during leaders’ s questions where I could speak with a bit more conviction, having heard it from the doorstep. I am a real convert to that.”
