We’re on the campaign trail with our three West Cork TDs. This week we joined Michael Collins
THERE was a confessional air to the election cavass conducted by Michael Collins, the leader of Independent Ireland, in Bandon on Monday.
In the shopping centre, most of those asking Michael for assistance leaned in and quietly spoke into his ear, thereby putting a distance between them and the media hovering nearby.
A lot of people declined to be interviewed about their own personal needs, especially on video. Although polite and friendly, they said their business was not for public consumption.
But there were exceptions such as Karen Crowley, who helps families access disability supports.
‘Families of children with autism are being let down,’ said Karen who helps to run a Bandon area support group.
‘They are not getting the vital support they need, such as physio and occupational therapy, as well as access to Camhs. It’s a worry for people in the area,’ she said.
Meanwhile, Ann F Hallahan issued a broad appeal to everyone to use their vote in the Friday November 29th general election. ‘People fought for our vote and there are still countries in the world where men and women can’t vote,’ she said.
Others took the election literature that was being handed out. And, in the space of a three-hour walkabout, about 10 people took Michael’s personal number so they could make an appointment to attend one of his two full-time clinics. The decibel level at Bandon Mart was enough to make one’s ears bleed, but it didn’t stop some farmers smiling and winking for the camera.
The manager of Bandon Mart, Sean Dennehy, took pity on The Southern Star and explained, in the relative quiet of his office, why farmers are finding themselves on the back foot in the court of public opinion, and what the Government needs to do if it is to secure farm incomes, and the involvement of the next generation.
‘They need incomes to be attractive for the younger generation to come in,’ he said. ‘We need government support for the beef and sheep sectors and we need supports for dairy, too, because it has been going through an income crisis in the last couple of years,’ he added.
‘What we really need for dairy is for the derogation to be protected.
‘Farmers have invested in their businesses heavily, which has cost them money. And if you reduce the amount of cows they can keep, that is going to cost even more money, and give them no return for their investment over the last few years,’ he added.
Later, Deputy Collins said farmers are selling dairy livestock at the rate of knots because they can’t see a future in it, in fact some are facing financial ruin.
‘I’m told that the mart is already booked out in January in relation to the sale of dairy cattle because farmers are being forced to sell their livestock,’ he said.
Deputy Collins’ level of face recognition in Bandon was high, and was met largely with positivity and many pledges to give him their vote.
There was one man at Bandon Mart with a booming voice who denounced Michael - in jest – as ‘a scoundrel’ only to quickly recant when he saw the media. Strange but true: people are as circumspect around reporters as they are around members of the gardaí and psychiatrists!
The most raucous response to the walkabout was in the Kilmichael Bar when a hearty cheer went up, followed by another deafening sound – loud barking and the frantic clatter of dogs skittering over tiles.
As it turned out, the most ‘exercised’ person on the day was, in fact, Deputy Michael Collins who took issue with another Michael.
The Independent Ireland leader described the comment made by Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary about the number of teachers in the Dáil, and their lack of effectiveness, as ‘scandalous’. ‘What was Michael O’Leary doing at the launch of a senior minister’s campaign?’ he asked. This is Deputy Collins’ third general election campaign, and he estimated it will cost €23,000 of his own money – a figure that factors in the re-use of some election posters from his poll-topping campaign in 2020.
‘I don’t take any funds from anyone and I pay for my own campaign out of my own wages and income,’ he said. ‘No one owns me, or the 24 councillors, three TDs, and one MEP, which form part of the Independent Ireland party,’ he added.
The Southern Star watched Michael knocking on doors and chatting to people on the streets of Bandon. At Oliver Plunkett Street, he met women who were enjoying the mild weather on their stoop. They told him they wanted the broken street light, four doors down, fixed because it’s too dark at night. He promised he would, and they promised to give him their number one.
The issues on the doorsteps – most of which were closed on this particularly quiet Monday afternoon, despite the fact that Deputy Collins says he has knocked on about 3,000 doors so far – were: the cost of living, housing, and the climate. In that order.
But Deputy Collins said it is when people start talking about the state of the roads that their demeanour changes and they become furious.
That, and what the 13.5% vat rate is doing to cafés, pubs and restaurants, is really exercising people, he said.
Another thing that seemed to set Michael’s teeth on edge is people telling him that he is a shoo-in and will be returned, top of the poll, after people in Cork South West cast their votes at the end of November.
‘I can’t take anything for granted,’ he said. ‘If everyone thought like that, and gave their number one to another candidate, I would be in trouble.’
