Poll topper was clear favourite
AT the second time of asking Marc MacSharry has made it to the Dáil, bridging a 30 year gap since the last MacSharry represented Sligo/ Leitrim, that of his father, Ray, former Minister for Finance, Tánaiste and EU Commissioner.
Poll topper Marc was always a clear favourite to win a seat in Sligo/ Leitrim along with Sinn Fein’s Martin Kenny. In the three seat Sligo/ North Leitrim in 2011 he managed 10.43% of the first preference vote which wasn’t enough but this time he saw his vote increase to 8,856 on the first count and a 14.2% share of the first preferences. His election was never in doubt and the addition of Eamon Scanlon late in the day was the icing on the cake for the party.
Indeed, had the party not secured two seats from a 32.4% first preference share would have been a disappointment. For a long time one seat looked like all there was for the party and this would have brought into question the three candidate strategy.
Before Scanlon was elected, MacSharry reflected: “My preference was for a two person strategy, one in Sligo and the other in Leitrim. I’m not talking about myself, whether it was Eamon Scanlon instead of me in Sligo and whoever in Leitrim. .
“You could argue equally that if there wasn’t a South Sligo candidate or a town one the vote wouldn’t have been as good in those areas and indeed without a Leitrim candidate would we have polled as well in south Leitrim and west Cavan? Those are imponderables that are academic I suppose at this stage.” Reflecting on the election, just before he was officially declared. Marc said that on a personal level he was thrilled.
He paid tribute to his campaign manager, Edel MacSharry and the ‘ huge’ party organisation across the constituency which he said was phenomenal. He said he was totally humbled when he saw his first preference vote. Five years ago he tasted bitter defeat but he was subsequently elected to the Senate and from then on he began planning his next bid for a Dail seat. “We started with thirteen clinics a week in three different counties and then I tried to do what I could at a national level.
“Seven private members bills I brought forward reflected what was going on in the community such as access to cancer treatment and issues surrounding mortgage arrears, illegal money lending. This was not just to be hardworking. It did help me,” he said.
Marc added: “I tried to make the party learn from the mistakes that were made and clearly there were many and to make Fiánna Fail a pliable organisation again where people determined policy and the direction it went.”
The challenge he says for the four newly elected TDs is to act as one for the North West, to deliver for the community. There was plenty of talk pre- election about recovery but he said while there was some positivity in Dublin it wasn’t seen in the North West or the other regions. Nationally, he says, there’s an onus on everyone to gather their thoughts and be “responsible about forming a government.”
“I’m sure Fiánna Fail won’t be found wanting in that regard,” he says. “I think the worst thing that could happen is that we have no government and a hung Dáil like what is happening in Spain at the moment.
“As a country we’re at a critical juncture and any party, certainly Fiánna Fail would like to be leading the negotiations for a coalition. Who knows what’s going to happen but what is critically important is that a government is formed. and that we don’t have another election soon and a period of instability like what happened in 1981 and 1982 because that will not serve the country well.”