Election 2024: Greens are better for farmers than Independents, Clare candidate says
Acmodation Lack On Her Garvey Green Connaughton Seeking Speaking The Raised Pictures: Senator Eamon With People Róisín Of Downsize Party When Doorstep Angela (right) For To Ward
“I don’t know if Darragh O’Brien took the whole thing of needing to build houses quicker, sooner seriously,” Róisín Garvey says.
Traversing the constituency of Clare on the campaign trail, the Green Party deputy leader is her usual outspoken self, pointing to the failures of the outgoing coalition, of which she is a member.
Garvey is probably the best prospect of a gain for the party in the more rural constituency of Clare, with a four-year Seanad term increasing her profile nationally and locally.
Driving through the Clare countryside out towards Ennistymon, Garvey acknowledges the failures within government — particularly on housing.
She says that, while the coalition has overseen increased housebuilding which has been a win, the increased level of homelessness must be seen as a failure of government.
Scroll for results in your area
Excuses such as population increases and the war in Ukraine can be made, she says, but the State did adapt well to finding homes for Ukrainian refugees.
In particular, she questions outgoing Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien and his role in the crisis.
When asked if O’Brien failed in his job, Garvey walks it back slightly saying that he didn’t because “he built loads of houses”.
“I don’t think he’s failed. I’m not sure his priorities are the same as my priorities.”
In particular, she highlights cost-rental as an issue, with it being pushed on a national level, but the development of it in Clare is yet to start. She hits out at council chief executives who “aren’t answerable to anybody”.
It’s a cold afternoon in Ennis as Garvey pounds the pavement in Willsgrove, knocking on doors with her team of canvassers.
Hailing from Inagh, a village nestled between Ennis and Ennistymon, Garvey comes from a political family, with her father Flan having served as a Fianna Fáil councillor until 2009.
She did not make it over the line in 2020, amid a green wave that washed 12 Green TDs into the Dáil. But, after four years in the Seanad and two seats now empty with the departure of both Michael McNamara and Joe Carey, her prospects are certainly not bad.
“The only negativity I really get is online and I think two doors out of the whole campaign so far have verbally attacked me and abused me,” Garvey says. “It’s not bad, considering.”
On the doors, an issue that continually crops up is housing, with one woman, Angela Connaughton, raising the lack of suitable accommodation for people looking to downsize.
Connaughton says her family members would prefer to move to a smaller apartment from their four-bedroom house, but that there simply isn’t accommodation available to them. The canvass comes in the hours after the first RTÉ leaders’ debate, with one voter asking Garvey how she thought it went.
“Shouty,” Garvey replies, saying she believed her party leader — Roderic O’Gorman — performed well in the clashes, but that he was “very polite”.
Garvey does single out one party leader for criticism however, saying that Independent Ireland’s Michael Collins just “makes stuff up”.
“I’d argue with anybody based on facts, but when they just start making up stuff,” Garvey says, adding that the Greens have “put more money in farmers’ pockets than the Independents ever have”.
Garvey says she believes Collins is “living in denial” about climate change.
“I think his head is in the sand, sure the farmland is saturated,” she adds.
Garvey says farmers all over the country are struggling, while accusing Independents of only offering farmers more of the same.
As the team of canvassers wander up the road further, Garvey turns into a house where John Gannon opens the door, revealing that she is the first caller so far in the campaign.
Garvey sounds thrilled, before asking Gannon if he’d give her a number one vote off the back of her visit.
“Well you might get something,” he tells her.
“Well, I’ll take it,” Garvey responds, before explaining how her father had once opted to climb Croagh Patrick for a vote in a local election.
He points to the cost of living as a key issue for him in the election, while later on up the road Siobhan King raises the lack of affordable housing being built in the local area.
She points out that there isn’t an equitable split between the amount of social houses being built and the amount of affordable houses being delivered, saying that her two children will face difficulties affording a home.
Health is also brought up by King, with the ongoing issues at University Hospital Limerick raised as a major concern.
She says that while her daughter is training to be a nurse, she wouldn’t step foot in UHL.
It’s one issue shared by Garvey, with the senator describing how she spent four nights on a trolley in the hospital previously, saying that it was “hell”.
“UHL is the most famous hospital for nightmares,” Garvey says, as she pressed for further investment in primary care centres in Clare — with just one established in Ennis.
As the canvass ends, Garvey is back in her car on route to Ennistymon where she is scheduled to speak to students about the importance of voting.
As the afternoon wears on, Garvey pulls in to the Ennistymon Community School, built atop a hill in the town, and hops out to speak to students.
Gathering all the students in the main hall of the school, Garvey climbs up on a table to address the students — before quickly stepping back down after a glare from the principal.
She urges the students to get out and use their voice come polling day.
“When you don’t vote, somebody else gets to decide for you… I don’t care who you vote for, you can hate me for all you want, you don’t have to vote for me.
“But if you have a vote, I beg you to go out and use it.”