Leading councillor quits FF over cutbacks and party’s ‘failure to listen’

A FIANNA FÁIL councillor has resigned from the party, citing the Government’s failure to listen to the grassroots as his main motivation.

New Ross town council member David Maher has been a member of Fianna Fáil for the past 21 years. The 50-year-old dairy farmer said he was fed up with the party not listening to grass-root members and would serve out the remainder of his time on the local council as an independent.

He said at least two others from the party in the area would also resign because of dissatisfaction with both the party and Government cutbacks since the last election.

Last night, a FF spokesperson said any elected person was entitled to make their own choice.

“We have hundreds of councillors and I don’t think it’s possible to take the feelings of one as that of everybody,” he said. “But, of course, the party thinks it’s important to listen to the views of members from the ground up and there are forums for people to express those views.”

In mid-June, Waterford city council’s only female member, Mary Roche, resigned from the party over cancer facilities in the south east. She said she would consider voting Fine Gael if they were to provide such a facility or possibly running as an independent on issue.

Mr Maher’s resignation means that FF has lost its outright majority on New Ross town council.

“I’m disenchanted with the Government and the way it has been behaving,” said Mr Maher. “I don’t think Fianna Fáil at the top is listening to the party members and to the voices from within.

“I’m disenchanted for a number of reasons. It’s hard to identify particular ones. We’re not being listened to, first and foremost.

“And I can’t stand over some of the cuts which this government has implemented, particularly in the area of education.

“One of our local Stay-in-School initiatives has had its funding cut in half. The programme was successful and cut absenteeism in half. Co Wexford has one of the highest levels of early school-leaving in the country and one of the lowest levels of progress onto third level. This programme, and others like it that we are running were having an impact. Yet their funding overall has been cut by around 8%,” he said.

Various national upsets within the party, specifically revelations that Michael Collins was on a list of tax defaulters, had also marred the image of the party and of politicians as a whole. It had also spurred his decision to cut his ties with Fianna Fail.

“I was at a meeting in a school recently and one person turned to me and said ‘You’re nothing but a bloody politician anyway’. I’ve been a member of Fianna Fail for the past 21 years, an elected representative for four years and have held various officer positions at every level, up to county board level. I was the county vice chairman when I stepped down.

“It’s not a decision I have taken lightly but I felt constrained by what I could say. I felt my silence was wrong.

The father of five said cuts brought in by the Government had seen his income fall by 20%. He was also disillusioned with the proposed smoking ban.

“The whole affair about smoking in public is just a smokescreen to hide the real issues of what is wrong with our health system.

“It’s very easy to put into law a concentration of smoke permissible in air. What we should be doing is trying to make people more responsible, not enforcing laws which curtail them in public,” he said.