Dean Buckley Irish Politics

Michael Lowry Voted with Government More Than 75% in Last Dáil

Michael Lowry sided with the government on more than 75% of votes in the 33rd Dáil, according to data from an analysis of voting patterns by writer and activist Conall Mc Callig. I asked Conall for the stats on Tipp’s five incumbent TDs, four of whom are seeking reelection on the 29th of November, including Lowry.

Fianna Fáil’s Jackie Cahill, Tipp’s only government TD since 2016, unsurprisingly tops the table, voting with the government 99.3%. However, Cahill declared he wouldn’t be running again due to health concerns, and was replaced on the ticket by Cllrs. Michael Smith of Roscrea and Ryan O’Meara of Cloughjordan.

Sinn Féin’s Martin Browne voted with the government least often, just 4.46% of the time, followed by independent Mattie McGrath on 8.9% and Labour’s Alan Kelly on 15.53%.

But Michael Lowry stands well apart from his colleagues, voting with the government 77.3% of the time. To give a sense of scale, he has voted with the outgoing government more than twice as often as the other three incumbents combined, and closer to thrice as often than twice.

Interestingly, he’s also the only Tipp TD to never abstain on a vote in the 33rd Dáil.

Lowry is the third-longest-serving TD in the Dáil, at just over 37.5 years, after his former party colleague Bernard Durkan (43.5) and FF’s Willie O’Dea (42.5), and just ahead of the Tánaiste Micheál Martin at 35.5 years.

He was a Fine Gael TD from his first election in 1987 until late 1996, and served as Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications under Taoiseach John Bruton. He was forced to resign after it emerged that supermarket tycoon Ben Dunne paid for a £395,000 extension to Lowry’s home (equivalent to almost a million euro today). He was reelected as an independent in the 1997 election and has stood as one ever since.

The contrast between his voting patterns and the other incumbents seeking reelection is also reflected when comparing the TDs’ votes to the aggregate votes of their Dáil grouping.

Martin Browne (4.46%) voted with the government half as often as Sinn Féin (9.15%), while Alan Kelly (15.53%) voted with the government slightly more than Labour (12.02%) and Mattie McGrath (8.9%) voted with the government slightly less than the Rural Group (10.36%).

Meanwhile, Lowry at 77.3% voted with the government much more often than the Regional Group at 53.24%. He was the second-most pro-government TD sitting in opposition during the 33rd Dáil, after his Regional Group colleague Noel Grealish (excluding Joe McHugh and Marc MacSharry, who started on the government benches before moving to opposition).

Lowry announced his reelection bid surprisly late in the day, prompting speculation in Tipp political circles he might step aside for his son Micheál or one of the other councillors elected under the Lowry Group banner in June.

He was interviewed in August of this year by Gardaí from the Criminal Assets Bureau investigating matters arising from the Moriarty Tribunal. The Tribunal’s final report, published in 2011, found “beyond doubt” that Lowry corruptly influenced the awarding of Ireland’s second mobile telephone license to Esat Telecom, owned by billionaire Denis O’Brien, among other wrongdoing.

Lowry rejects the report, and refused to resign following an all-party motion in the Dáil calling on him to do so after its publication.

Dean Buckley Irish Politics

Interview: Martin Browne TD, Sinn Féin Candidate for Tipp South

For the general election, I have decided to conduct a candidate interview series with the candidates seeking to represent Tipperary in the 34th Dáil. I initially hoped to arrange to do proper interviews with as many candidates as possible, but in the interest of giving the candidates equal time and opportunity to respond, I’ve emailed them each ten questions. Nine of the ten questions are the same for all candidates, with one question (#9) tailored to the candidate. All candidates of the same party were given the same tailored question. I will be publishing responses in the order I receive them.

Next up: Martin Browne TD, Sinn Féin candidate for Tipp South.

Continue reading “Interview: Martin Browne TD, Sinn Féin Candidate for Tipp South” →
Dean Buckley Irish Politics

Interview: Francis O’Toole, Aontú Candidate for Tipp North

For the general election, I have decided to conduct a candidate interview series with the candidates seeking to represent Tipperary in the 34th Dáil. I initially hoped to arrange to do proper interviews with as many candidates as possible, but in the interest of giving the candidates equal time and opportunity to respond, I’ve emailed them each ten questions. Nine of the ten questions are the same for all candidates, with one question (#9) tailored to the candidate. All candidates of the same party were given the same tailored question. I will be publishing responses in the order I receive them.

First up: Francis O’Toole, Aontú candidate for Tipp North.

Continue reading “Interview: Francis O’Toole, Aontú Candidate for Tipp North” →
Dean Buckley Irish Politics

A Skeleton in Florida

When I look back on the year in Irish politics, I think of a skeleton in Florida. On its east coast, about fifteen minutes’ drive from the Kennedy Space Center, is the Windover Archeological Site, a muck pond where the skeletal remains of 168 people were found buried in peat at the bottom. The skeletons are all thousands of years old, and some date from thousands apart: generations upon generations of people used it as a burial site.

Among the skeletons was a 15-year-old boy with a host of developmental issues, including spina bifida. Given the extent and severity of his disabilities, he likely couldn’t walk, let alone directly contribute to his people’s survival in a hunter-gatherer society. He probably had to be carried everywhere he went his whole life. Yet even in an environment as hostile to human life as prehistoric Florida, his people did not view him as a burden or a strain on resources. They didn’t leave him to die of exposure so they’d have one less non-productive mouth to feed. He was just another member of the tribe, so they cared for him. They carried him.

It’s 2024 and here in Ireland, the environment is not hostile to human life, quite the opposite. People bend the environment to their will. We are one of the wealthiest countries in the world, and most of us enjoy a level of comfort and convenience no one buried in Windover could even begin to imagine. Yet parents of children with spina bifida have spent this entire year – and so many years before this – begging our government to provide the medical treatment to which they are entitled.

I could tell a lot of different stories about why that’s the case. A ruling class with an electoral monopoly. The legacy of Catholic anticommunism on healthcare. Ireland as the neoliberal dream curdled into nightmare. But all these stories, while part of the picture, turn on one fundamental fact.

Disabled people are not respected in this country, and our lives are not valued. We are not, perhaps, subject to as much open hatred and contempt as we might be elsewhere, or in times past. But we are generally not seen as human beings with the right to fully participate in all aspects of society, and if we are, it’s usually because people think our disabilities don’t count or aren’t real. It is not respect that underpins how disabled people are treated in this country, but pity, so you must be pitiful to count as disabled. We are poor things, to be tutted over and talked past, or tokenised as inspirational.

It’s better than a kick in the teeth, but pity kills too. Pity says a disabled life isn’t worth living, so why make it a good one? Pity says disabled people can’t speak for themselves, so why bother trying to listen? Pity is the tear rolling down your cheek as you press the pillow over our sleeping faces.

We are one of the wealthiest countries in the world, yet a significant number of disabled people here receive a primary school education or less. We are one of the wealthiest countries in all human history, yet disabled people are routinely locked away in residential institutions rife with abuse rather than supported in living in our communities. We are one of the wealthiest countries there is ever likely to be, yet parents of children with spina bifida are begging the government for medical treatment.

Today, the 33rd Dáil is dissolved, and the voters of this republic have once again been asked what kind of country we want to be. I don’t know what to expect, nor what to hope for. I just know we deserve better than this.

Dean Buckley Irish Politics

Candidate Interview Series: General Election 2024

For the general election, I have decided to conduct a candidate interview series with the candidates seeking to represent Tipperary in the 34th Dáil. I initially hoped to arrange to do proper interviews with as many candidates as possible, but even when the candidate pool was much smaller, it was going to be hard to pull off. Now that the number of candidates has increased sharply, and with the window for the election itself closing, it would be impossible.

Given the logistical difficulties, and in the interest of giving the candidates equal time and opportunity to respond, I’ve emailed them each ten questions and will be accepting written or recorded responses. Nine of the ten questions are the same for all candidates, with the tenth question tailored to the candidate. All candidates of the same party were given the same tailored question. No interview will be published if the candidate does not answer all ten questions.

A number of candidates have already agreed to participate, but again, in the interest of giving them equal time and opportunity to respond, I have also emailed those candidates who did not respond to my initial query. I will be publishing responses in the order I receive them.

In the interest of transparency, I want to acknowledge that I am a member of Tipperary Welcomes, a network of community groups and civil organisations working to promote integration and fight for the needs of everyone who calls Tipperary home, whose members include Tipp Sinn Féin, Tipp People Before Profit and Tipp Greens, as well as the Clonmel-based Workers and Unemployed Action. Additionally, I am a member of a community group with similar values called Clonmel Together alongside WUA candidate Séamus Healy. The uniformity of the questions beyond the tailored ones is intended in part to mitigate against my own bias in that regard, but I hope you’ll agree the tailored questions aren’t softballs either. I will be repeating these disclosures at the start of all relevant interviews.

I also want to be upfront about the fact I did not extend three of the candidates an opportunity to participate. I believe strongly in giving everyone a fair shake, but at the end of the day, this is my blog, and I have to live with what I publish on it. That being said, I could not in good conscience offer space on my blog to John McGrath, the National Party candidate in Tipp South, Peter Madden, the independent National Alliance candidate in Tipp North, or Justin Phelan, an independent candidate in Tipp North. I consider the National Party – and I don’t use this term lightly – a Hitlerite party established in open imitation of the Nazis, and anyone who would run for it is beneath contempt. As for Madden and Phelan, they have been personally involved in the harrassment, intimidation and abuse of friends and comrades of mine in Roscrea, and I couldn’t look them in the eye if I gave either a platform.

All other candidates have been asked to take part.

TIPP NORTH

TIPP SOUTH