Holly Cairns 'gutted' about likelihood of missing the end of election campaign
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As a freshly elected TD, Holly Cairns was shocked by the scale and sophistication of lobbying that goes on in politics.
The Social Democrats leader, who is fighting to retain her seat in the highly competitive Cork South West constituency as she also prepares to welcome her first child, believes that public funding has for a long time been allocated on the basis of who shouts the loudest. This, she says, needs to change.
"I was actually taken aback by it when I first got elected. I wasn't aware of how all of the lobbying goes on, and it was really eye-opening to see it.
"A really good example of that is during covid-19, when places were starting to reopen, restrictions were being lifted, and there was a time when you could go for a pint in the pub but you couldn't go to the birth of your child, partners still weren't allowed into the maternity hospitals.
"We were experiencing the lobbying from the different sectors. But a group of people who weren't an organised lobby were women just about to give birth, or who had just given birth, and their partners."
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She says that powerful lobbyists and groups that represent sectors such as agriculture and greyhound racing receive significant financial allocations out of annual budgets, while vulnerable groups such as those with disabilities miss out.
Having grown up on a small dairy farm, Cairns is quick to hit out at policies adopted by the outgoing Government and previous administrations, especially on the nitrates derogation, which she says is not reinforcing a green brand, but jeopardising it.
The Nitrates Directive, which came into force in 1991, aims to protect water quality from agricultural pollution. The Nitrates Derogation allows farmers to exceed the limit of 170kg of livestock manure nitrogen per hectare set down in the regulations, up to a maximum of 220kg or 250kg per hectare.
"What's happened in our agriculture sector has massively benefited, for example, fertiliser companies. It's massively advantaged to people who are in bigger dairy, and then the big companies that export all of that. Who is disadvantaged, predominantly the small farmer, these farms become completely unviable.
"The narrative from politicians is, any attempt to try and change this is somehow a threat to the agriculture community. It is the same kind of playbook that's come out over the last 30 years, it's not just this government ... the kind of intensification of the agriculture sector, and it's very clear where the money is going and who has lost out as a result of this."
She singles out the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA), a group which Taoiseach Simon Harris, Tánaiste Micheál Martin, and Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald have visited on the campaign trail in recent days.
"When the IFA are lobbying us, I don't hear enough about what the kind of small farms that have become unviable need, compared to their very strong bid to keep the nitrates derogation in place."
She says agriculture has changed rapidly in a short period of time, during which we have gone from small family farms of 30 acres or less to an intensification of the sector, at the expense, she believes, of our green credentials.
"Consistent policy over the last decade or two has changed the lay of the land in that sense, and a lot of those farms are unviable or they have dry stock and somebody working in a full-time job, or they've been bought up by the bigger dairy farms. Do we need to look at that and change it? We 100% do."
"We're a country that has always been so proud of our agriculture sector and this kind of image that we have abroad of this green agriculture sector and these small family farms. That's why, for example, Kerrygold is sold for more than butter from other countries. It's a very important brand to us.
"What should we be doing? Protecting that brand. How do we do that? Actually practice more green agriculture. It does put it at risk when, for example, we're one of the only countries that have the derogation and use more chemical nitrogen than other countries are allowed to. That's not reinforcing a green band, if anything, that jeopardises it."
Ms Cairns says that the coalition's emphasis on retaining a nitrates derogation has "just walked farmers to a cliff edge".
"Because Ireland, when you consider our climate, our soil, all of the advantages we have in terms of being an agricultural country, we should be the country that's vying to be held up as the example of the future of agriculture, the most sustainable type."
While excited about the impending arrival of her baby, Ms Cairns cannot pretend that she is anything but "gutted" about the likelihood of missing the end of what is a short sharp election campaign.
This election is critical for her personally, but also the party she leads.
"I'd be lying if I didn't admit that it does feel like a bit of a disadvantage to be due within a week of polling day, there's no template for it, so we just kind of have to figure it out as we go along."
Based in a three-seat constituency where Independent Ireland candidate Michael Collins is widely expected to top the poll, she faces significant opposition from sitting Fianna Fáil TD Christopher O'Sullivan, as well as two Fine Gael candidates in senator Tim Lombard and councillor Noel O’Donovan. Labour's Evie Nevin has strong name recognition and Sinn Féin, which is running Claire O’Callaghan, cannot be ruled out. It could all make for a multi-way scrap for two seats.
Having made it clear that she is serious about entering Government after this month's election, losing her seat would have serious consequences for the Social Democrats party.
But singling out Liam Quaide in Cork East, Pádraig Rice in Cork South-Central, and Jen Cummins in Dublin South-Central, she believes there are gains to be made.
"After the last election the one thing I learned is that you just don't know what's going to happen in the three-week campaign. We would really hope to make gains and continue the momentum we got the local elections where we nearly doubled. Our councilors became the second largest party in Dublin City Council, I hope there's huge potential for us to grow."
She is adamant that are a number of "deal breakers" for the party in any coalition formation talks that may come about, in particular the Social Democrats will be expecting delivery on disability, health, housing, childcare, and climate.
A senior minister for disability is also a red-line for the party, because there hasn't been the "political will" to date to ensure the provision of services.
"We want to go into Government, but we don't want to go in for the sake of it," Ms Cairns says.