O’Gorman bids to beat odds
THERE were just 10 active Progressive Democrats members in Wexford 12 months ago. But since Colm O’Gorman burst onto the scene in April last year, he’s mustered an army of supporters.
There’s an extra piece of motivation on offer that may partly explain their numbers. Former Fine Gael TD and bookmaker Ivan Yates offered odds of 100/1 against the new Senator taking a seat. If O’Gorman defies the odds, many of his supporters will pocket €2,000 from Yates.
Local polls put his support levels at only 2%. Yet, he is amazingly upbeat and distrustful of polls. He points to the Prime Time poll for Wexford in 2002 to justify his scepticism.
“The poll showed that John Browne would get 22% of the vote. He got 15%. The poll showed Hugh Byrne on 15%; he lost his seat. Avril Doyle was on 10%. She wasn’t elected, and the poll curiously showed Paul Kehoe and Liam Twomey both on 4%, yet both got elected.”
Having crossed from the “side of the angels” to politics 12 months ago, O’Gorman concedes that had he chosen another party in a less rural constituency, his election bid might be open to less scrutiny and challenges.
In marked contrast to his role as director of the organisation for abuse victims, One in Four, he now finds himself justifying his choice of party and constituency and approaching doorsteps as a Government spokesman. However, having chosen the PDs from an à la carte menu of potential political parties, O’Gorman insists he chose the party which best reflects his values and aspirations. This was despite approaches from Labour and Fine Gael.
Having flirted with the idea of joining Labour, O’Gorman still refuses to detail why their advances did not work out. Instead, he maintains that the PDs and Labour are similar in their liberal tones and approaches to social justice.
“If anything, I would actually contend that the PDs are more liberal than the Labour Party. Bar the economic approach and bar some of the usual political clichés, I don’t think there’s such a wide difference.”
Changing the 30-year-old tradition in Wexford of electing two FF, two FG and one Labour candidate to include a PD has become his daily grind. He says the sitting TDs have a “fatalistic view” of Wexford and don’t push its agenda enough.
“When I look at my county and see that it has one of the lowest disposable incomes in the country and has had for the past 20 years regardless of what Government has been in power, when I see that we have one of the highest rates of suicide, when I see that we have one of the lowest uptakes of third level education in the country, the lowest levels of job creation, it makes me feel that it’s about time politics started talking about those sort of issues.”
On the doorsteps, O’Gorman makes only one promise to his audience: simply to work hard.
Despite his inevitable toeing of the party line on issues of health, O’Gorman is a stern critic of other aspects of Government.
The 1997 deal on institutional abuse, which carries a bill of €1.3 billion, is described as an “appalling scandal”, e-voting machines and PPARS are hailed as examples of how not to invest in technology, and cost-overruns on infrastructure projects are deemed “extraordinary”.
He says the Government’s approach to education is an “example of the best of who we are, and the worst of who we are”.
On local radio debates, the issue of child welfare is earning O’Gorman a reputation as a passionate and articulate voice. Whether he can transfer his experience and support as the founder of One in Four onto the political landscape remains a problematic issue.
But he is stubbornly resolute. “I’m very optimistic that we will take a seat in Wexford and it won’t be the fifth seat.”
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