Will disgruntled voters wield their weapons?

“I’m Sarah O’Reilly, I’m canvassing for the general election.”

“Ok,” the Bailieborough lady replies expressionless.

“I’m your neighbour across the road,” Sarah adds.

“Ok,” she says betraying at least a morsel of interest.

“What party are you with?”

“Aontú.”

“Never heard of them. You’re not affiliated with Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Sinn Féin?”

“No.”

“Thank God. No Greens?”

“No, it’s Aontú,” Sarah assures.

Asked about her adversity to the other parties, the woman asserts: “They destroyed the country”.

“They’ve wasted millions of our money - the [children’s] hospital, everything’s gone over budget, young people can’t get accommodation. My daughter’s going to lose her apartment now because she’s getting evicted, and she can’t find anywhere to live so she’s going to have to move back in with me with her child. She’s 31, she can’t get anywhere [in Dublin], rents have gone through the roof.”

Will you vote?

“I’ll definitely vote,” she asserts.

We’re in Cloverhill estate with large semi-detached homes facing onto a generous green. A low winter sun twinkles off the nearby Town Lake. Built during the Celtic Tiger, many of these homes were bought by Dubliners who traded the big smoke for the Breffni sticks. You would expect Sarah to receive a warm response in her home town. She does, along with many vows to vote for her.

Making our way through the estate, Sarah says that lady’s concern is echoed constituency-wide with housing yet again the hot topic.

“I’ve gone to doors where there’s three generations, four generations in a house and it’s like a pressure cooker. There’s small kids, older people who are maybe sick, people who need care and everybody’s on top of each other and it’s just causing so much friction in families - families who all love each other but live in very cramped conditions.”

On the hustings Sarah has seen “so many houses” lying vacant across Monaghan and Cavan. Aontú are calling for the government to “appropriately” tax the 90,000 vacant homes nationwide and ringfence the funds as grants offered to the homeowners to refurbish and rent them out.

Sarah accuses the government of not taking the housing crisis seriously enough.

“They didn’t act like it was a crisis, they didn’t put an emergency plan in,” she accuses.

The next door to answer is opened by a woman who has “always voted Fianna Fáil” and works in a supermarket.

“I definitely wouldn’t be voting for Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael,” she vows. “Change is needed big time.”

She notes the impact of the ongoing cost of living crisis, particularly on elderly people, “It’d break your heart”.

The lady’s 30-year-old son comes out to meet Sarah. He describes “half living” with his parents as “not ideal”.

“I think it’s 85% of people under 35 are living with their parents,” he says. “They couldn’t have manufactured a better housing crisis if they had tried.”

He’s working a few days a week in County Antrim, so faces a lengthy commute.

“I was looking along the east coast - Laytown, Bettystown anywhere along the M1 so I can get up to the north or down to Dublin, and some towns have one place to rent and they’re looking €1,600-1,700 a month for a one-bed apartment, and it’s not necessarily the nicest place in the world either.”

He was non-plussed by the prospect of voting.

“I find it difficult to vote for policy makers who are all landlords as well. It’s very difficult to imagine they are going to want to solve this housing crisis when they are directly benefiting from it with gigantic rents.”

Asked about voting he admits he hasn’t read Aontú’s policies, but adds: “I haven’t met anyone who would give me the confidence to vote for them. I’d nearly be better off abstaining at this point.”

Best weapon

Sarah has encountered this electoral despondency a lot on doorsteps, mostly amongst young men.

“I don’t think people realise the power of their vote,” she says noting that almost half the electorate stayed at home in the local elections.

“They are the people who are disillusioned, they think there’s no point.

“I would encourage you to use your vote because that this the best weapon you have to fight back against what the government is doing to you.”

The canvas leads us to a row of houses on Chapel Road where a woman raises migration for the first time.

Asked what will motivate her decision to vote she replies: “Possibly housing and emigration - people leaving the country, not much prospect for them here.”

And who will she vote for?

“It won’t be for the government anyway - that’s for sure,”.

We get to Drumbannon, a well maintained estate of terraced houses, the green area is slightly less generous than Cloverhill but the shimmering waters of Town Lake are still visible.

Over the grumble of an idling engine a workman explains out a window his views: “I vote local and that’s it. It wouldn’t be party, it’d be just local.”

“Immigration and housing. The foreigners are put first in this country. You can’t even say boo against them.”

Anyone who raises migration as an issue, he says, risks being labelled.

“You’re racist, you’re this or that. But no, it has to be said.”

It’s the first time migrants have been brought up this morning, but it is soon raised again. An elderly man remarks on what’s happening in Dublin.

“They’re coming in and they’re out-bidding the locals for ordinary houses like this.

“I think it’s very, very wrong,” he adds.

Speaking to the Celt, Sarah says that migration seems to be a priority in specific areas.

“Where the immigration issue comes up is where there is competition for resources, or having to wait two weeks for a doctor’s appointment.”

Other issues raised in Drumbannon include a complaint about treatment of a loved one by one section in Cavan General Hospital, a faulty street light, petty vandalism, lack of residential parking, and lack of chiropodist in the health centre. While those who shared their thoughts in this canvas were overwhelmingly dissatisfied with the government, one Drumbannon pensioner was refreshingly content with the government’s performance.

“I’m well looked after from the government. Pension wise and all that I’m grand.”

Whether those who feel overlooked by the government can be motivated to wield the weapon of their vote will go a long way to deciding the fate of Sarah O’Reilly and others.