What started off as a joke for Duleek launderette owner Dave Keaveney has spiralled into an election campaign after locals urged him to “run for real” when he pinned up a mock poster in his business in Meath.

The poster comprises a picture of Dave with the words: ‘Don’t Give A Feck Party’ and the slogan: “I promise to do nothing for you and my very best to do it.” In a pun on his business, it adds: “Vote Dave no 1 for a cleaner Duleek.”

The Roscommon native has been running the Xtra Clean launderette and dry-cleaners for 15 years.

“It started off as a joke,” he says of his election campaign. “I made up the poster because I’m fed up listening to the same bull from politicians and the same electioneering promises that aren’t kept.

“Everyone who came into the shop thought it was brilliant and advised me to go for it. Sure, if I can put a smile back on people’s faces and not fill them with false hope, isn’t that what it’s all about?”

He now intends to run for election as a non-party candidate in the Meath East constituency.

One “worried” man, he says, “even saw the poster and came into the shop, thinking I had gone missing”.

On his party’s Facebook page, Dave includes a cheeky post of a scuba diver with the words: “Checking out the potholes in the local area today.”

Other posts include a list of wishes such as:

*Give Ireland back to England and apologise for the state it’s in. It’s fecked!

*Dogs fouling on the streets will be shot on shite.

The 55-year-old, who lives in Navan with wife Colette and children Shauna and Cailean, added: “I’m sick of listening to waffle at doors from candidates who you never see again once they’re elected. I’m stuck in the shop five days a week so if I’m elected, I’m here constantly six days a week for anyone.

“If I can’t solve a problem, I’ll tell them why. I won’t say ‘leave it with me’ and never get back to them.”

On a serious note, Dave would like to see more jobs in the area.

“There’s tradespeople of all descriptions out of work in East Meath and I would love to see some small-sized companies come to the area and create jobs,” he says.

“If I get elected, I’ll shake up the whole council chamber.”