Voters determined to have their voices heard
They look set to park their habits and long-term headaches and focus on the biggest issue of the hour – the national economy.
All signs are they will send a powerful message to the Government that Donegal south west is suffering and its people are not happy.
On Friday, Minister Éamon O Cuív told the voters to “pray” the economic situation improved. His audience was intent on dealing with one issue without divine intervention.
Ordinarily the traditional sectoral concerns loom large in Donegal politics. Voters have strong social and economic ties to industries and certain policy decisions.
However, there is now a more pressing anxiety overshadowing the old debates.
The wider community is struggling, jobs are disappearing and people are panicked. Old battles appear to have been parked for the time being.
The northern constituency profits off better land for tillage. But the south west constituency is almost exclusively designated as disadvantaged land.
This means suckler cow policy is a reoccurring concern. The decision by Agriculture Minister Brendan Smith to halve the welfare payment for these farmers was not a popular one.
On top of this there is a perception that the county has been unduly targeted for on-farm inspections which is creating more bureaucratic hurdles to jump.
The county’s ICSA chairman Brendan McLaughlin said this is a very real grievance for farmers who are battling to get credit from the banks to meet their cashflow needs.
Mr McLaughlin said there was a residual respect for Mary Coughlan for the work she did for her native constituency during her time at Agriculture House. But there is a sense that Fianna Fáil will be blamed regardless of individual relationships.
Mr McLaughlin said if farmers, their wives and children cannot find work or suffer because the community cannot spend money it creates an unavoidable annoyance. Fianna Fáil should not expect favours.
Tourism in Donegal has been upbeat. as the county benefited from a marketing blitz by the tourism authorities and the currency situation has brought more of its traditional customers back from the North.
Paul Diver, who runs the Sand House Hotel in the seaside town of Rossnowlagh, said it was one of the best years in a long time.
Particularly in the area of “staycations” the hotels benefited from people looking to explore parts of Ireland they had not been to.
But the sectoral situation cannot be amputated from broader anguish.
Mr Diver said younger people had already had to move away to find work. There was not enough confidence to take on temporary workers.
“You see a lot of applications where it is a housewife whose husband would have been the main breadwinner but he has lost his job or lost hours. They are looking for part-time work in the tourism or service sector,” he said.
Ernan McGettigan and his brother Diarmuid run the butcher shop in the Diamond, the focal point of Donegal Town.
“The best example I can give for how things are is that two of the by-election candidates, from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, came into the town and rented two premises on the Diamond for three weeks [for election offices] without any problem at all,” he said.
“I was in a shop the other day and they had a big storage fridge standing there but switched off, because they could not afford to turn it on.”
Mr McGettigan said cross-border shopping has been a very difficult tempest to trade through.
He doesn’t blame the customers but said the Government should have been able to address the areas where the Republic was at a competitive disadvantage, such as the VAT rate.
He said the Government was not leading by example as it awards the bulk of its construction projects in the area to firms from the North.
The town is resilient. Local businesses and the Four Masters GAA club launched a €20 Christmas voucher book. This offered discounts for shops and helped fundraise for the club.
There were festivals running throughout the year, the Taste of Donegal attracted 20,000 people.
“It is a good idea to hold the by-election, in that it should have happened over a year ago. It shouldn’t have been foisted on us over Christmas and over a three-week period.
“Looking at it on the ground they say this is a Fianna Fáil constituency but I do believe the tide is turning and they may get a strong message,” Mr McGettigan said.
Killybegs is the country’s busiest fishing port. It changed a lot in recent years. Private boat-yards and processing plants transformed their premises or built new ones.
But a study to be released shortly will show €300 million was borrowed by fishermen and producers in Killybegs during the boom to modernise their operations.
Sean O’Doherty, chief executive of the Killybegs Fishermen’s Organisation, said unlike other sectors this debt is being repaid. That does not mean the problems are gone.
Crab fishing is in the doldrums, while mackerel fishing, with its season going since October, has been positive. But the price for white fish has been very poor.
Mr O’Doherty said the people are wise enough to dismiss any candidate who comes in promising to revolutionise the Common Fisheries Policy or change the playing field.
There are issues around enforcement of regulations and appropriate punishments which can be dealt with. Fine Gael published a bill earlier this year to end the practice of criminalising errant skippers.
Most of all, he said, the town needs support. Its study will show there is scope for a few hundred more jobs in Killybegs if the conditions are right and businesses are supported. This has not been happening.
The Government strategists are delusional if they believe a four-year plan and a deal with the IMF will save the day, he added.
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