TDs take up their guitars and rock to roll out the young voters

"Be a voice for the animals," read the banner outside Leinster House. Surely the work of a kindly person aching for the endangered species within? Sadly, no.

It was a plea for animals in the wild, not the sheepish kind emerging from the House to do their bit for democracy.

First up were a dozen uncertain looking Young Fine Gaelers, walking in circles, attired in black gags and "Gagged by Government" T-shirts to signify their disenfranchisement as a result of mid-week elections. They were joined by Enda, their leader.

"You're here again," he said cheerfully to a photographer. "No - you're here again," went the reply.

Anyway, Enda's message is that the last Friday election saw turnout increase by a sixth. "What's Fianna Fáil afraid of?"

On the other side of the gate, a fabulously noisy group campaigning to save St Luke's hospital was also threatening the status quo with their chant of "No Hospital, No Vote".

The presence among the campaigners of cancer patients in treatment and recovery didn't fool one passer-by, who sniffed that "all this hospital stuff" was a plot by Pat Rabbitte to "replace the Irish nurses with foreigners and make Bertie look bad".

The media had been drawn to the gates principally by the Rock The Vote campaign, founded to reel in the couldn't-be-arsed-to- vote youngies. They reeled us in expertly with the promise of "representatives posing with Rock The Vote guitar-strapped models". What we got, in contrast to the earnest St Luke's campaigners, was a surreal line-up of guitar-strapped representatives, with three lovely girls hovering aimlessly.

The Rock The Vote campaign's purpose is to increase voter turnout, particularly among young voters. Start-up funding was provided by businessman Hugh O'Regan and the campaign says it has the support of many individuals and organisations.

Cool Ciarán Cuffe worked the rock look with a leather jacket, whingeing for added authenticity, about the shortcomings of his guitar.

Michael D appeared, rolling his eyes and saying he would play the sax if he had a choice, "but the guitar is much more democratic, I suppose".

Still, there was something about the vibe that had him reminiscing about the Rolling Stones at a sunlit Slane Castle, circa 1982, when he was a vision in black silk.

One by one the pretenders admitted that they couldn't or wouldn't play the dang things.

"Nope, can't play", said Fiona O'Malley.

"An awful lot of politics is about perception," grinned Ciarán C, in a truism so profound we thought he might get an anthem out of it.

Mary Lou McDonald, looking a tad awkward, suggested that Trevor Sargent was teaching her how to play, a fine example of democracy in action. Trev excused himself from a public demo by explaining: "When you're in a small party, you learn to sing unaccompanied."

But he still wouldn't sing.

"Big Tom" Parlon was the likely lad of the bunch. His usual party piece Life's been good to me so far" (Sample: "My Maserati does 185/I lost my licence and now I can't drive.") would now be abandoned, he said, for more election-appropriate numbers such as Born To Run, or Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood or, in case of the worst, You Can't Always Get What You Want.

Meanwhile, Olwyn Enright and The Irish Times eyed the hovering models. "Maybe they're meant to be rock chicks?" she speculated.

The three, Jude Nabney, Sarah Hughes and Niamh Watmore, were all hired from the First Option agency for the RTV gig.

Jude is "never around to vote". Niamh votes but doesn't "feel strongly about it". Sarah is the daughter of former FF TD Séamus Hughes and "automatically votes FF".

Still, it's safe to say that if RTV pulled in two out of three of the young vote, it would be regarded as a job well done.

Rock The Vote has 10 full-time campaigners on the job.

Watch out for the road show - and some guitar-strapped rock stars even - starting on April 16th.