Politicians find a day's work can be hard going

THE Progressive Democrat candidate for Dublin North Central was a lamb to the slaughter. Ronan Garvey was at the top table at a meeting yesterday to answer questions from the unemployed about unemployment.

The audience of around 60 people at the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed conference had accepted Mr Garvey's earlier apology for not being Mary Harney.

She was the party spokesperson on employment, he said, but she couldn't make the meeting and he was her "eleventh hour replacement". He also apologised for having a touch of the flu and reading from a script.

Then a woman from Gingerbread, the lone parent organisation, asked him about the effect of inadequate child care on unemployment. Mr Garvey repeated he was not the spokesperson on the issue and asked if he could take her name and get back to her.

Mary Murphy, INOU development officer, rounded on him. "No. You cannot do that," she said. It would show "major disrespect" to her organisation and the people in the room. The audience muttered its agreement. Mr Garvey broke into a sweat. Beside him Fianna Fail's Tom Kitt sat calmly studying his notes, pot a hair out of place.

Mr Garvey defended his leader. "We're a small party and she's the party leader in the week before the election," he said.

"DL is a small party," a woman in the audience said. "They have someone here."

Until this exchange it had been a lowkey meeting as the audience asked politicians about party policies on unemployment.

Local TD and Minister for Enterprise and Employment, Mr Bruton, was flanked by his Government colleagues, Pat Rabbitte and Eithne Fitzgerald. The Green party candidate, Pat Fitzpatrick, completed the lineup.

The IOU chairperson, Paul Billings, said: "When the election was called it was preceded by a poll saying that unemployment would be a major issue. Eight days to go and unemployment has hardly featured at all."

Pat Rabbitte passed the ball to the media. Unemployment did not make "sexy copy", he said. "Tax is the issue and in most cases the media don't give a shit about the unemployed," Mr Rabbitte added.

Each politician and would be politician had been given five minutes to outline their party's approach to the problem. Mr Garvey wanted "to see an entirely new relationship between the State and all those who are unemployed".

Ms Fitzgerald said that Labour guaranteed 18/21 year olds that it would "offer a positive alternative to starting into adult life on the dole".

Mr Kitt said local employment services should be extended and Fianna Fail would improve the pupil/teacher ratio in schools.

Mr Bruton said there was prejudice among employers against those who had been without a job for a long time.

Mr Rabbitte said there were large scale unemployment black spots that "need to be plugged back into the real economy".

Finally, a man said he would be going to one of the marginalised blackspots where a large number of people were not expected to vote. "I haven't heard anything here that would convince me to go back and say `go and exercise your vote'. All I've heard, are a load of empty promises."