If 11-year-olds had the vote, the Green party would top the poll and Fianna Fáil would double their representation. That was the verdict of fifth- and sixth-class students in Ranelagh Multi-Denominational National School in Dublin South East.
In a mock election of all the candidates in the constituency, the students voted in John Gormley of the Green Party first, followed by Labour leader Ruairí Quinn, with Cllr Chris Andrews of Fianna Fáil in third, ahead of his running mate and sitting party TD, Minister of State Eoin Ryan, who won the fourth seat.
If it reflected the real vote, Fine Gael's Frances Fitzgerald would lose her seat and Attorney General and former TD, Progressive Democrats' Michael McDowell would not be elected either.
The school principal, Ms Joan Whelan, said: "The Greens always come in first with children. They got 2½ quotas in the sixth class. It's the idealism of children, and they are very interested in the environment."
The school conducted the mock ballot because "we believe it's important that children are aware that it's a big world out there and that there's an election going on."
Ms Mary Flaherty, a former Fine Gael TD and now a parent at the school, was invited in to explain about elections, votes and proportional representation.
"We drew out a ballot paper and she made us tell her all the TDs in the area," said one fifth-class student, Finbarr McTeirnan (11). There were 31 voters in the class and three counts.
