THE Bertie and Enda TV showdown meant little to Mary Cawley and her family.

"It will make no difference to us which one of them is Taoiseach, " explained Cawley, as she gathered with her nine children to watch the TV debate in their frugal mobile home.

"As far as I am concerned this election does not matter to the Travelling community as TDs do nothing for us."

A glance around the decrepit conditions in which her family exist makes it hard to argue with Cawley's views on politics.

The 11 of them live in a twobedroom mobile home and the caravan that is parked alongside it in one of 17 bays in the Lynch's Lane halting site in Clondalkin.

The Cawleys . . . whose nine children are aged between four and 25 . . . are angry that even though they live in Mary Harney's Dublin Mid West constituency they are completely marginalised from society.

Most strikingly they have a wheelchair-bound daughter who has no wheelchair and just sits in the mobile all day with nothing to do and nowhere to go.

"My daughter Maggie has a rare condition that has left her needing a wheelchair and blind in her left eye.

We do not even have a wheelchair for her. She needs physio treatment but nobody seems to care about her, " said Cawley.

"No social worker or nurse has come to help us out here since we moved here eight months ago. We would love to be housed in the morning."

Two wooden pallets have been placed beneath the door to act as steps into the mobile home. This is no place for a wheelchair-bound woman to live.

The sight of Mary Cawley lifting her 25-year-old daughter from one seat to another so that she can have a proper view of the Kenny-Ahern debate is poignant.

Television can take us to far away places and remove us from reality.

For the Cawleys, the suited men in the debate were far removed from their reality.

Mary explained, "No TD has even called in to us here during the election campaign. The only election candidate that has called to see us was Joanne Spain from Sinn Fein."

Last week her four-year-old son was rushed by ambulance to Our Lady's Hospital in Crumlin as he was having seizures.

He has remained in intensive care since then and two more of her children have heart conditions.

"It doesn't matter to us if Kenny or Ahern win tonight's debate or which one of them is Taoiseach after next week as all politicians are the same to me."

Bernard Joyce, coordinator of the Clondalkin Travellers Development Group, claims that councillors are generally supportive of the Travelling community but they are isolated during the general election.

Joyce said, "Most Travellers are registered and willing to vote but they need to be canvassed and encouraged to vote. We are asking all Travellers to cast their vote on Thursday. They should take hold of their citizenship as one vote can make a difference."