Rural Ireland is still being left behind
Leo Varadkar with former TD and Senator Michelle Mulherin on a visit to Ballina in 2019.
While I was away our former Taoiseach Leo, who quit and ran in our hour of need, stirred up a bit of a hornet's nest when he suggested that Dublin (and a bit of The Pale) paid the bulk of the taxes collected in Ireland while the loafers in rural Ireland did what they do - loaf and complain. The media, naturally, went to town on Leo and further stirred the hornet’s nest by getting the usual rural suspects to rant on about Leo. There was no attempts by the media to analyse what Leo had said and no questions asked as to the validity of his comments. And that’s sad. News is such an instant commodity nowadays as the social media “reporters” air their views, generally critical, often crude and baseless, that there is no time to reflect on the merit or otherwise of Leo’s assertion.
The fact of the matter is that there is truth in what Leo said about the taxes collected and I have no doubt that he could get the officials figures to back up his claims. But, that is only part of the issue and Leo, who, as Taoiseach would know these things, could and should have added a few qualifications. Sure, the DublinPale pays more taxes because of the greater population and because Leo’s government and governments previous to Leo’s directed incoming IDA investment almost exclusively in the direction of Dublin. With that investment came the jobs and naturally with the jobs the taxes.
There was the occasional case where the IDA was directed by government to invest outside of Dublin and usually that was in the direction of Cork, Limerick, Waterford and Galway with some crumbs directed towards Sligo and Letterkenny. That policy meant the real rural Ireland got damn all in terms of inward investment, direct or otherwise, jobs or services. So the problem was that Leo got away without having to answer why it was that DublinPale paid most of the taxes. It was a direct result of Leo’s government and previous ones pursuing a policy of putting all investment into Dublin.
My memory is not great but I recall a time when there were people in rural Ireland pointing to the folly of placing all the country’s eggs in the one Dublin basket. I’m going back to the time when Dublin was still a nice city. At a time when Ireland was about to lose its Objective 1 status within the European Union because Dublin had forged ahead of the qualifying criteria for Objective 1, people like Professor Seamus Caulfield and businessman Sean Hannick, Kiltimagh’s Brian Mooney and Castlebar’s Paddy McGuinness and my good self got together to shout stop.
Professor Caulfield assembled the data that blatantly showed that when Dublin was removed from the equation all of the rest of the country was entitled to Objective 1 status and the higher grants that the EU dispensed. There were areas of the country that were doing much better than the West, the Midlands and the North West but it was the investment in Dublin that potentially dragged the country out of Objective 1 status.
The government of the time (late 1990s, early 2000s), a bit like Leo, thought everything was fine because Dublin was doing well but fair play to Charlie McCreevy, who was Minister for Finance, he recognised the validity of the case put forward by Professor Caulfield. Ireland was designated Objective 1 in transition (I think). Rural Ireland was thrown an EU lifeline while government policy continued to drive everything into Dublin and the major cities.
And that continues to be the case. Dublin continues to expand, devouring up Meath, Kildare and Wicklow, making a dog’s dinner of what was once a nice and enjoyable city. The rest of the country, especially south of a line from Dublin to Galway has come on in terms of income and now Ireland is a net contributor to the EU. Rightly so.
But there remains an income gap in the West and North-West and border areas. I see there are some people in the Northern and Western Regional Assembly (NWRA) concerned that they may lose their Objective 1 status because Galway has benefitted greatly from inward investment and has surged ahead of the criteria required for Objective 1 status. There is a simple solution. Move Galway into the Midwest Region along with Clare, Limerick and Tipperary. The NWRA could then continue to benefit from Objective 1 status and hope to bring incomes up on a par with the rest of the country.
I have mixed feelings about this flotilla. Certainly, it is a good thing that concerned citizens should draw attention to the genocide that Israel, with US and EU acquiescence, has perpetuated and continues to perpetuate (at a lower level) in Gaza. 75,000 Palestinians dead and upwards of four thousand of those since the truce was declared. Millions of people have been displaced, denied humanitarian relief and harassed beyond belief. Well, beyond belief by any civilised people. Israel has cast aside any pretence at behaving in a civilised and humanitarian fashion.
In their dealing with the flotilla and its worldwide cast of crusaders, the Israelis dealt with a problematic situation much the same as any authority would do. They arrested the people intent of breaking their blockade, handcuffed them and kept them in detention. The crusaders whined about ill treatment but their whinging paled in comparison to the devastation and destruction of the Gazan people. It was better if they had suffered in silence. The Israeli attack forces do not suffer fools gladly.
The flotilla members were, fortunately, thrown a lifeline by the ignorant Israeli Minister for National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, who posted a video of his flag-waving self, taunting the prisoners. In a normal society such behaviour would draw condemnation but in Gvir’s Israel he becomes a hero. Sure, Netanyahu distanced himself from his national security minister, suggesting that his behaviour did not reflect Israeli values. Are Israeli values better reflected in the ongoing genocide? Will Ben Gvir be sacked? Not likely.
Will the flotilla activists be branded anti-Semitic? Most likely. Will Jews around the world, will Jews here in Ireland, brand Ben Gvir a disgrace? Hardly likely.
I have known the Mayo Mental Health Association since it was first established. The late, great P J Murphy was a committed advocate for good mental health. In his own quiet and innovative way he helped to build the organisation and appreciated the need to have the media on board. He brought the John Melvin with him at an early date and saw the association flourish.
I have been aware of the ADHD acronym without having a clue as to what it was, but now thanks to Padraig O’Hora, I have some clue and it seems that ADHD is a very confusing condition. Taking such a condition up Mount Everest, where a confused and conflicted head could mean the next step might be a fatal one, was surely tempting fate. But despite many setbacks on the way to the top, O’Hora kept his mind on the job. It was wonderful that he, along with team mates, Adam Sweeney and Éanna McGowan were successful. Credit is also due to Team Leader Jason Black who was deprived of the honour of summiting by an ankle injury. I was also pleased to see that the group’s sherpas, Pemba, Mila and Sona, were recognised. There’s no place on a mountain for a climber without a Sherpa. Maigh Éo abú.
A couple of columns ago I waxed lyrical (or tried to!) about the good old days in Mayo media before the advent of the scourge of social media. In the course of the column, I happened to mention some of the greats of Mayo journalism. I also, unforgivably, missed out on others, mea culpa.
Because I replaced him, for the , in Castlebar, I naturally recalled Swinford’s noble son, Damian McHugh who I accused of going rogue by becoming a lawyer. Damian must have been an FFer as he went, via the , to the great and much lamented . I did not know it at the time but he had another claim to fame as being a cousin of the great Willie Joe. I suspect he must have been a far out cousin as I don’t think Damian ever togged out for Mayo. But that’s neither here nor there.
The thing is that Damian went on become a barrister and writer of several books which sought to explain the court system in lay man’s language (not an easy task) to the average punter and also spent time teaching law, journalism, libel and defamation issues and public life in the Dublin Institute of Technology. One of his students was the current Tánaiste Simon Harris. I mention that as a by-the-way, not as any suggestion that Damian was a great teacher!
Now, Damian has written a memoir which will soon be in a good book store near you. The book is titled , which suggests to me that Damian has few regrets. His recollections of an early life in Mayo and a second career in Dublin will make for an interesting read.
- Anon
