Bank Holiday weekends and elections are a difficult mix and never more so than a sunny weekend. Most people are out when we call so it’s over to shops to search for voters to meet..

This is where it got bizarre as people were arriving with the latest news from the radio about PD threats to quit the Cabinet. In one sense the candidate is at the centre of events but in another sense we are quite detached from events as they unfold away from the hustle and bustle of the canvass.

Actually I remember last time a person telling me on the doorstep that he couldn’t talk to me as he was following an exciting election debate on TV. As far as he was concerned the arrival of the candidate was a distraction from the real election as fought out in the media.

I went up by Corduff to go door to door for a while. I was to meet some students from the Institute of Technology Blanchardstown for a coffee to chat about the election. I’m very proud of my role in getting this Institute established. It took years of patient negotiation to persuade the Department of Finance to sanction the project and they agreed only when I brought in a delegation of hi tech investors to support the case. It was a shrewd move on my part as IBM were about to announce the creation of 4000 new jobs in Mulhuddart in December 1996. Their representatives were strongly in favour and we got the go ahead.

I got documents later ,under the Freedom of Information Act, which indicated that Charlie McCreevy fought a rear guard battle to cancel it when he became Minister for Finance but he lost and the Institute was built on a super site close to Corduff.

Today I have to fight a similar case to get new primary and post primary schools built. Amazingly not one new secondary school has been built here in 10 years if prosperity. I suspect FF will pay a high price for that neglect in a few weeks.

I really enjoyed today’s canvass at shops and in street walkabouts. Its good to meet young voters that way as you don’t usually meet them at home on the door to door canvass. For many housing is the issue and I spend a lot of time explaining our innovative Begin to Buy scheme for home buyers. If we get that running in Government it should have even more impact than reductions in stamp duty.

It was along day today and I was delighted to get an invitation from a friend in Castleknock to eat with her. After a week of pub and restaurant food it is so nice to get home cooked food. Crab cakes and grilled salmon. Pure bliss at the end of a Saturday canvass.