When Vincent Browne rolled into town for his TV3
constituency People’s Debate it was always only going to be about one person,
Mick Wallace. The early arrival of
Wallace’s family, friends and supporters packed out the meeting giving a
distinct feel that there was a twelfth man to proceedings. Candidates entered separately and quietly took
their seats before Mick was allowed to make his grand entrance to a standing
ovation from his own supporters. Wallace was allowed to sit apart from the
other candidates directly across from where Vincent Browne would sit and in his
direct eye line ensuring first response to any issue he could get.
Vincent Browne had the unfortunate task of following that
onto the set before we were ready for the off.
Curiously Browne asked the audience what topics they wished to debate. Issues such as TTIPS, Austerity, Tax, Social
Welfare, Housing, Repealing the 8th amendment, Education and Homelessness were suggested. After a polite cough a man suggested
Agriculture while another said Rosslare Harbour and I suggested the University
of the South East.
So off we went and the cameras rolled with an introduction
to the constituency and the 2011 outcome.
Browne warmed to Wallaces supporters by complaining that Brendan Howlin
was not prepared to come before 600 of his constituents while Paul Kehoe led
the production team on a merry dance about his participation until
recently. Both were absent however given
the complexion of the audience and the treatment of Michael D’arcy from Fine
Gael, it is unlikely that anything they could have said would have been
listened to by the crowd. After an
analysis of Wexford by Saoirse McArrigle of the Wexford Echo during which she
confirmed that Ger Carthy will announce his candidacy and that Aoife Byrne of
Fianna Fail will have her name added to the ticket, the evening got going.
The first notable contribution was when Fianna Fail’s
Malcolm Byrne attacked Mick Wallace regarding his failure to pay VAT collected
on his buildings or his employee’s pension contributions. Byrne was shouted down by the audience to
such an extent that Browne had to intervene to tell members they’d be asked to
leave if it continued. Wallace denied Byrnes evaluation of his debts and his
financial position and threatened Byrne with a solicitor’s letter in an attempt
to gag his remarks in the event of them being broadcast. Browne said that now this threat guaranteed
these remarks would be broadcast. A
possible legal spat between the pair will now ensure Malcom Byrne now has at
least one thing in common with Peter Robinson!
Wallace defended his tax arrangement and said that if he was
re-elected he’d pay all his salary in tax.
Later he ironically railed against those neo-liberalism and the market
economy which had made him considerably wealthy enough to offer to serve the
people for free. He detailed how many
houses he’d sold attempting to clear the debt. Once more he raised his
annoyance at others who criticise what he wears. For the record it doesn’t bother me too much
how he dresses but I’m beginning to wonder why he brings it up so often. Is it
a deliberate diversion on Wallace’s part to change the subject?
Vincent Browne put it to him that he (Wallace) thought he
understood NAMA a lot better than the PAC and that if he had evidence of wrong
doing he should give it to them in open session. Wallace prevaricated and complained that
others who were in NAMA were getting better treatment from the state than he
received as his debts were to foreign banks.
Browne pursued him on when exactly he made a clean breast of his companies
financial position to the Revenue Commissioners and to my mind it was clear
that while Walalce wasn’t waiting for the letter to arrive to officially advise
of an audit. He waited until the very last before he held his hands up.
Senator Michael D’arcy was similarly subject to abuse from
the audience as he pursued Wallace further before the issue fizzled out. So on we went as some of the candidates gave
a 1 minute presentation as to why they should be elected. Clearly it was not about Wexford. The debate could have been held anywhere in
the country about the same old issues that The People’s Debate has discussed ad
nauseum at 27 constituencies. There was
very little discussion of Wexford.
Several very sad cases of deaths arising from poor mental
health services were instanced to support the case to re-open the Victorian
Mental Hospital at St.Senans in Enniscorthy.
No candidate pointed out the reality that the location for such services
is proposed for the grounds of Wexford General Hospital nor indeed referred to
the reality that Wexford General Hospital only survived because of Brendan
Howlin securing money to fund construction of A&E. But Brendan Howlin was in the sin bin for
ignoring the debate. Some candidates
came to ignore the debate in person and made little contributions as the night
wore on.
There is a case for a 24 hour access to emergency treatment
for mental health. As someone who once
visited a patient in St Senans, I wonder how re-opening a remote austere
building would improve anyone’s mental health.
On we went and the only discussion of agriculture was in the
context of Wexford farms contributing 10% of our agricultural output and that
processed food was causing obesity and was unhealthy. No discussion on milk prices or farm
incomes. Along with the fishing industry
which is the subject of concerns regarding crewing and Rosslare Europort’s
future, issues like the University of the South East and its ability to
transform the region played second fiddle on the night to a largely partisan
audience. When it came to rural crime Councillor
Bobby Ireton made the valid point that burglaries in North Wexford were on the
increase and that old people felt vulnerable. Malcolm Byrne complained about
garda numbers in Gorey. There was one moment of hilarity when one contributor in
this section mentioned job losses and the closer of the sugar factory and was
interrupted by Vincent Browne. “What has this got to do with rural crime?” “Oh”
came the response, “I thought we were talking about rural Carlow”!
One of those who cheered the arrival of Wallace said how he
opposed the granting of refugee status to Syrian migrants and wanted them
cleared by Garda vetting. They were economic migrants, we were told by the man
who said he was not aligned to any political party, a euphemism on the night for
many of Mick Wallace’s supporters.
Another campaigner against austerity related how poor his
wife’s experience on the medical card was in Wexford Hospital compared to what
she received recently in Florida. His
colleague attacked the government over medical cards availability but it was
when a question from the floor to Michael D’arcy regarding employment
opportunities for those with disabilities with university degrees morphed into a
defence of Oireachtas members expenses
that you really had to hand it to Wallace.
A good manager lets his team do the work.
So we heard about social welfare cuts, SNA cuts which had in
fact been reversed, but hey why should we stick to the facts here, there’s a
show to put on!
Former councillor Jackser Owens raised the issue of jobs in
Enniscorthy complaining about how many jobs had been lost since Mary Harney
took Coca Cola to Mayo 15 years ago.
He’d forgotten that recently Clearstream had announced 70 new jobs in
2011 and 200 more last year.
Wallace left many of the other opposition candidates in his
wake as they grasped at his coat tails.
Interestingly while Deirdre Wadding made approving references to
Wallace, there was no reciprocation.
Local People Before Profit Members valiantly trotted out the party line
but the darling of the middle class audience that descended on Wexford last
night was without a doubt Wallace. They complained that the €4M allocated for
social housing hadn’t been spent and argued for the purchase of 30 houses in
Riverchapel from NAMA by Wexford County Council. It was never explained that if such a purchase
would consume most of the housing purchase budget for most of the county
leaving those on housing lists in other districts waiting longer. D’arcy did point out that the council felt
best value was ensured by repairing and returning council houses to the public
housing stock. Wallace didn’t interact
with any other candidate than Byrne and D’arcy.
The only issue that Wallace didn't dominate was the matter of the Repeal of the 8th Amendment which was fought between the religious right and the 3 female candidates. I expected more of the audience would take part in this part of the debate but already there seems a reluctance on the part of large audiences to publicly engage on this.
Closing at the end we were treated to a criticism of neo
liberalism and market economics from the one man in the room who benefitted
most from it! Market economics is by no
stretch of the imagination a panacea for our ills. A social economic model may be a more
plausible, sustainable and positive alternative if Wallace was prepared to put
the case. But last night wasn’t that
sort of night. No to everything is a
better and easier message to deliver especially when the host describes you as
one of the best deputies in the house and the local minister as being self
important. To be fair Vincent knows
quite a bit about self importance. Not
so much a case of Up for the match but Up for the shouting match!
