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Enda Kenny's campaign diary

Second entry

What a start to the campaign! The media arrived at our Election HQ, the Phoenix Park dew still on their shoes. Out in the sunshine, they were lucky to get anything at all out of the campaign's first press conference, with the number of cars and buses beeping their horns wishing us well.

The campaign started well and it's got even better. Yesterday's Drivetime on RTE ran a piece on how FG's briefings are turning into a media scrum. Word to hacks: we start as we mean to go on. Since then, out in Dun Laoghaire and in Kildare and Meath, people's reaction has been amazing. Though maybe not all. I understand Roisin Ingle of The Irish Times might be about to sue me for occupational injury, after the breakneck speed of the tour she covered in Meath. Sorry Roisin! You did a great job though.

At every stage so far, one thing is obvious: people want change. Not change for the sake of it, but real change, for the better. Exactly the kind of change I'm offering in my Contract for a Better Ireland. Better services, better spending, better government, better standards, better quality of life.

My pledge to stand down if I don't keep my Contract with the Irish people, is proving to be a real talking point. A bunch of guys in their 20s told me they're going to vote for Fine Gael on that basis alone, because putting my neck on the line "made politics real". That's great. But it's a real indictment of politics, generally, that so many young people see it as anything but real. Especially, when the truth is, politics affects every aspect of their lives, from where they live, to the kind of education and job they get, right up to how long they live.

My message then is on 24 May have your say in how Ireland is run. Use your vote. Vote for change, for better, for accountability in leadership, for the Contract for a Better Ireland.

First entry

"It's great to see Rock the Vote getting the vote out.

It's a great chance to remind young voters that at the election, you're in charge! Vote and you decide Ireland's future. Your single vote could make or break the next government. Some opportunity, some power, some responsibility!

So, in my first blog, I'm asking you to use your vote well. To vote for the only party offering a straight-up contract to the Irish people - the Contract for a Better Ireland.

And, I'm asking you, too, to vote for the only party leader putting his political neck on the line. If I don't keep the Contract for a Better Ireland, I won't run again for the job of Taoiseach. I believe it would be wrong to do so. And no, you're not hallucinating. Yes, you can believe your eyes.

I'm doing this because I want to bring some sense of accountability, some sense of consequences both to the idea of government and to the next actual government.

Serial refusal to be accountable, refusal to do consequences in public life, have destroyed politics, especially for idealistic people, who have a strong sense of social justice, of right and wrong.

For me, the right government makes people's lives better. It solves problems, not persuades people they don't exist. It puts our wealth to work to meet the people's needs. It takes the credit and the blame in equal measure. Above all, it keeps faith, keeps standards, keep its word.

No government can do everything. Fine. Everything isn't their job. What is their job, is to do what they say they will do. FG will.

And that should be the test as you go to use the most powerful thing a democrat has - your vote. Who's promising the same old guff they promised already five years ago? Who's giving people cast-iron guarantees? Who's giving people a detailed Contract? Who's prepared to their political neck on the line.... for a change?

And when you answer those questions, ask this.... who do I trust to solve the problems, tax wisely, spend well, stop wasting money, look after our protect the economy, deliver the services? Take responsibility? Do the job?

And 'job' is where it's at. Because all over Ireland people are thinking... ..."Hang on a second... if I did my job like the government did theirs... I'd be fired years ago. If I did my college work like this crowd run the country... I'd be out on my ear. We work our butts off, we pay our taxes one of the world's richest governments... so why do we spend our lives waiting for beds, waiting for trolleys, waiting in traffic, waiting for school places, waiting for a house, waiting for the chance put a roof over our heads within a 20-mile radius of our job or where we were born and reared?"

Ok - we have a job. But life would be so much better if only the government, not the developers, led planning. Then we might be able to live in a real community, with real services like proper transport, playgrounds, schools. We could even avoid commuting hell.

With all our wealth, why the hell don't things JUST WORK?!

If you want things to work, a Better Ireland, a government who'll do the job, keep their contract, vote Fine Gael."