Time to dig us out of a hole
ONE of the most interesting aspects of the election will be whether national issues will dictate voting choices or whether local issues and local personalities will once again determine where the preference goes on the ballot sheet.
While in the 2007 election the political parties all did battle around the issue of tax cuts and spending priorities, this election is taking place in a radically changed environment. Nobody that the Irish Examiner spoke to in the Co Cork town of Skibbereen was under any illusion about the dark and difficult road ahead for the next government — but they want the members of the 31st Dáil to provide a vision for the country, to engender hope, and as one man said “to knuckle down, roll up the sleeves and start digging us out of this hole”.
Wandering around the west Cork market town, there is a very real sense of the severity of this recession. There are closed shops, and many of those still trading have put their staff on three-day weeks.
Skibbereen, 85km from Cork, wasn’t targeted for investment during the Celtic Tiger, and while the construction boom did provide work for many, most people still commuted to work else elsewhere.
The main employers are the community hospital, the seasonal tourist sector, schools and retail, but none of these are hiring. And so, the number one issue is jobs, jobs and more jobs so they can try and halt the growing numbers of young people heading overseas.
Cathal O’Donovan is a former teacher and independent town councillor who runs a bookshop in the town. Christmas, he says, was different this year. Gone were the groups of young people laughing, backslapping and gabbing en masse on Main Street before heading towards the nearest bar. “There’s just not as many around. They’re all going. The hardest thing to take is emigration from the parishes. Ten years ago we thought emigration was finally gone and that we had a sustainable country with substantial employment. But here we go again,” he said.
“I believe that people are looking for candidates of calibre this time around, much more than they did before. People want expertise and people who know how to get this country back off its knees. And top on everyone’s list for that is generating employment,” he said.
Further up Main Street, Pierce Hickey is serving a customer at the counter of his newsagents.
“There is no consumer confidence out there,” she says, pointing around the shop. ” I have more staff than customers today. The universal social charge means that people have even less money to spend. Things are much worse than last year. They don’t have the money to buy birthday cards, magazines and newspapers or get photos developed.
“People feel betrayed by politicians and the bankers.”
If anger was last year’s predominant feeling, despondency has set in this year and disrespect for politicians and the political system is overwhelming.
Normally, arguments around political reform don’t really resonate with the typical voter. But after spending a day in Skibbereen, you’re hit once again with the realisation that we are living in extraordinary times. Everyone is talking about political reform. This, and the pre-eminence of national issues in this election, makes you wonder whether the recent economic and political chaos has made us less selfish as a people and less insular in our outlook.
William Walsh is a 29-year-old butcher on Main Street. He thinks our current political system is nonsense. “Our TDs should be running the country and not west Cork. The system here is totally broken.”
William wants the new government to enact political reform so that the country can be run more effectively.
“They all say they want change but will any of them stand up and actually do it? I have little faith in the three parties, but I’m also aware that’s it’s unfair to write the opposition off until we at least give them a chance,” he said.
William is lucky as he has employment in his family’s butchery and abattoir business. His friend, Morgan Courtney, isn’t so lucky. Morgan boarded a plane for Sydney early this morning. A civil engineering graduate, his job prospects were dealt a hammer blow by the implosion of the construction sector.
Luckily, Morgan has some work experience as he worked with Cork County Council on a graduate programme for two years after leaving UCC. However, the past year has been spent “picking up bits of work where I can, in shops, doing a bit of fishing or doing a bit of labouring”. He could only do that for so long though before emigration became his only option.
“Yes, I’m looking forward to travelling, but it’s not really my choice. I have to travel if I want to follow my profession,” he said.
What is really killing Morgan is the prospect that he won’t be playing for Castlehaven GAA junior football team or for Skibbereen Rugby’s second team this year.
“Sport controls my social life, especially GAA. I only really go out after matches, or else I travel to see Cork play. I expect there will be more of us leaving the local teams in September as many people are taking the attitude that they’ll give it one more season to see if they can make the senior team. I did that last year,” he smiles.
Several people that we spoke to in Skibbereen were scathing about politicians’ pay and pensions — and also about the Rolls Royce pensions still being handed out to public sector workers — “even though we can’t afford them”.
One former teacher, who didn’t want to be named, said his pension had been cut by 5% following the budget but he accepted that “we all have to make sacrifices”.
But none of this mattered to one father we met. He didn’t want to give his name, but he said he’d give up half his income if special needs services are protected by the next Government.
“Me, I will never get over the fact this Government wouldn’t touch the old age pension as there’s votes in it but would hit the blind and the handicapped.”
While there is a tangible anger towards Fianna Fáil in Skibbereen, there is also little real belief in the abilities of Fine Gael or Labour. However, amongst business people there is a definite sense that somehow anger must now translate into a renewed momentum to rebuild our broken country.
“There has been too much talking. Politicians need to knuckle down, roll up their sleeves and start digging us out of this hole. Communities will also have to pull together. We all need to go back to the grassroots as we’d forgotten about that,” said Sean O’Driscoll, a mixed farmer from outside Skibbereen and secretary of Aughdown branch of the Irish Farmers Association.
Hard work isn’t something that Regina Daly is scared of. When we walk into her Church restaurant on Bridge Street she and her waiting staff are, as they say in the restaurant trade, ‘slammed’.
“I’ve had to cut back on staff hours to keep going and so when we get busy we’re under huge pressure,” she says. “But then so is every business and I have to say that the staff are working particularly hard.”
Regina says the squeezing of disposable income, the return of ‘lunchboxes’ to the workplace and the construction downturn hit her business hard.
A few years ago, her breakfast and lunch trade was dominated by builders and business people. Now, it’s special offers that are keeping trade bubbling — and a diversification into weddings and special events.
“I have put too much into this place to give up fighting. I’ll fight to the bitter end to keep this business going.”
At the top of Main Street, John Field runs one of Skibbereen town’s best known landmarks, Field’s Supermarket. He employs 100 people at the supermarket and bakery.
He describes Skibbereen “as the town that politicians forgot about”. Fifteen years ago he was part of a local team who wanted to establish a third-level outreach campus in the town. Such a facility, he said, would have offered distance learning from Cork Institute of Technology to people in west Cork.
“Micheál Martin was Minister for Education then and he told us that he’d progress it. But it seems the proposal never moved out of a filing cabinet in the Department of Education. We had done everything we could to put it into place. It was a big disappointment.”
Fianna Fáil like to talk about the legacy of improved health, educational and infrastructural facilities that they have left in this country after 13 years of boomtime economics. The people of west Cork don’t see this around them. They just see the carnage left after a party they weren’t invited to.
John employs 100 people at his supermarket and bakery on Main Street. He just spent over €1 million on refurbishing the supermarket and a new purpose-built bakery.
* The town needs jobs and preferably jobs in sectors such as technology.
* Emigration is the biggest issue for every town in Ireland. We have to stop educating for export.
Cathal is a former teacher who also runs a bookshop in Skibbereen.
* Jobs to stop soaring emigration.
* Political reform to be enacted as the existing system made sense after the Civil War but doesn’t now.
William, like many others, is disillusioned with politics, the parish pump politics that mean politicians can’t concentrate on the national stage as losing sight of local issues could cost them their Dáil seat.
* Political reform.
* Politicians that make us proud.
Morgan left his hometown of Skibbereen on Tuesday, bound for Australia. He’s just one of the hundreds of educated young people who are reluctantly leaving the west Cork town. A GAA and rugby player, the prospect of not being able to play with the local teams again is killing him.
* Jobs to be created so he can eventually return to live in Ireland and work as a civil engineer.
Eight years ago, Regina converted the town’s early 19th century Methodist Church into a restaurant. Five years ago it was burnt to the ground. this downturn this won’t stymie her determination to keep her business going.
* Increased employment. There are no initiatives coming from Government to help create jobs. Once jobs are generated, everything will rise with them.
Pierce took over the running of his father’s newsagents on Main Street in Skibbereen two years ago and has been grappling with the economic downturn ever since — in particular, the squeeze on disposable income.
* A return of consumer confidence.
* A fairer tax system.
Sean farms 70 acres at Aughdown outside Skibbereen. He says it’s all about keeping people on the land.
* There has been too much talking. Politicians need to knuckle down, roll up their sleeves and start digging us out of this hole.
* Farmers and small business need a stimulus package to build business and create jobs.
The Corner Bar on Bridge Street in Skibbereen was handed on to William by his father. He says it’s getting difficult to make a living from a bar.
* Cut the cost of doing business. Rates, excise duty, income tax, VAT are all making it more and more difficult to generate a decent income.
* Don’t forget that supporting small and medium sized enterprise is vital to solving the unemployment crisis.
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