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IT’S A YEAR since TD Michael Fitzmaurice – previously best known as the head of the turf-cutter’s association – topped the polls in a Roscommon-South Leitrim by-election, taking the seat recently vacated by this friend and fellow campaigner Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan.
It was a dramatic weekend on the political front, as you may remember: Paul Murphy also upset the odds, snatching a seat that had looked destined to go to Sinn Féin in Dublin. The first big water protest happened on the same Saturday.
12 months after upsetting Fianna Fáil to take a seat on the opposition benches – how has Fitzmaurice found life as a TD?
We caught up with the outspoken independent during the week.
Aside from the fact that he’s quite fond of boxing metaphors, here’s what we learned (about what he learned):
There’s not exactly an ‘orientation day’
Speaking after his first week in the Dáil, Fitzmaurice told us:
“We’re just after getting an office, we haven’t our computer or phone line set up yet. We’re waiting on that.”
Getting used to life in national politics is a steep learning curve, he says – over the phone from Leinster House:
“All those things got sorted, but it’s a learning process and you’ve to hit the ground running.
“You’ve to be a fast learner and you’ve to get up and get on with it.
“As the man says, you’re playing senior hurling – so you’ve got to hurl fairly hard.”
You have to reach across the aisle to get things done:
The recently-elected deputy says he’s made progress on a number of areas, through cooperation with government TDs and junior ministers.
He highlights an initiative on apprenticeships which he championed, noting that it came about “with the help of a minister – obviously I can put out all the documents in the world and the minister doesn’t have to take them on board”.
Fitzmaurice brought his ideas to Fine Gael skills minister Damien English, they met “the senior guys in Solas” and some of his proposals have since been taken on board.
“It’s going to release a lot of opportunities for young people to get apprenticeships in this country, which is good.”
It might be surprising who’s willing to help:
“In fairness there are some ministers that have been helpful to me.
“I’m not going to go castigating everyone – but the place you do it is in a corridor or you meet them for a meeting.
“And – yes, there are in fairness, there are ministers that have been helpful to me.”
But progress can be slow:
“There was nights I went down the road and I hit my head against the window and I said to myself ‘what have I got myself into’.
“Things work slowly here,” he says.
“I’d be used to making decisions quick, driving on, getting going. You have to learn that you need to keep boxing at something to get there.
It’s best to speak directly – and leave the ‘reams of paper’ aside:
Fitzmaurice has made a number of high-intensity contributions in the Dáil, particularly during Leader’s Questions.
His preparation process?
“I’m not a person for reams of paper. I’m a ‘one pager’ – I put points down and that’s it. I’ll elaborate on the points because everything I’d have talked on, I’d have been dealing with it for a good while… I’d know it sort-of inside out.”
And it would help if others did the same:
“The thing that makes me tear my hair out is to see a minister coming in at priority questions, reading something that some civil servant wrote for him that they probably didn’t understand and don’t have a clue about.”
We need to talk about rural Ireland:
In his by-election victory speech, last October, Fitzmaurice raised laughs in the count centre, saying the answer to rural Ireland’s problems wasn’t to move everyone to Dublin. “Sure the country would tip over,” he told supporters.
“Before I came into the Dáil there was nobody, upon nobody talking about rural Ireland – you can look back and you can check all the different debates, there was no instances whatsoever.” (This isn’t strictly true – but you get his point).
“Day in, day out now – I suppose for you in Dublin here you’re saying ‘would you ever shut up about it’ – but you know, there is a real emphasis in trying to regenerate it.
“And I know it’s slow and it will be slow but the more you keep hammering at the door or knocking at the door the more you will get listened to.”
You need to keep your fighting in the ring
TDs are pretty used to parking their differences, once they get out of the chamber.
Even after scenes like this, Fitzmaurice says:
“If you go into a boxing ring, you go in to win the fight,” he says.
“When you leave the boxing ring, you have to be able to be a person that can say hello to someone afterwards.
“I was on a board of management in a school. I had plenty of rows, but when we walked out through the door we were doing that for the betterment of the children
“When I’m in the Dáil I’m highlighting stuff for the betterment of our people.
“You can’t go around with a chip on your shoulder and not talking to anyone. You have to say hello to somebody, be courteous to somebody. That’s what you believe, that’s what they believe.”
He’s not around for the long-haul:
With a young family, and long hours to be put in in the Dáil and in the constituency – his work/life balance hasn’t been the best since last October.
Fitzmaurice points out that with the amount of time taken up, both on the road and at work “if you were to go at it at that level for eight or nine years you’d be burnt out”.
“I’m lucky in that I was always used to rough and tumble and long hours. But there’s nights you go home and you’re worn out.”
He’ll have to step aside and make room for someone new eventually – and he’s no problem with that:
“If I keep using all my ideas for the next round or round and a half, eventually you’ll run out of ideas and you need to get someone young and enthusiastic in again.
“I don’t believe in being there to get a pension. I don’t believe in being there to be part of the furniture or to have a career – no way.
“You get in and box like hell, and get out.”
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Murphy faced charges and got the all clear in a court of law, despite the full weight of the state being mobilised against him. He has no questions to answer
@John O’Reilly: he was as guilty should have had to answer for what he done sure the world & his mother saw him standing at the car where the 2 women were held
@Sheila McNulty: Are you trying to distort and rewrite history?
Or are you just not familiar with what happened in 2014?
He did face charges along with five others and all six were found not guilty by a jury of his peers, there was huge cheering & clapping in the courtroom when the decision was announced .
@Leo Martin: Himself and all his cronies should have got jail time for what they did….
@Peadár Ó’Cearnacháin:
Leo was also “Found not guilty of a particular offence” while citizens who commit the same offence get jail time:
… independent.ie/irish-news/courts/pictured-woman-23-jailed-for-forwarding-information-on-pulse-system-to-person-known-to-gardai/42119906.html
Saw it on the news.
Somebody buy Varadkar a pram
What a juvenile comment by the Fine Gael leader.
@Leo Martin: Clearly he isn’t qualified to be in the position he is in. He wouldn’t hold down a job in a tyre center.
Would this be the same Varadkar who had to get the Attorney General to get him off the hook concerning Zappone gate? Especially when the Attorney General exonerated Varadkar using rules the Hotel Federation didn’t know existed. Would this be the same Varadkar who has not yet got off the hook concerning the Leaking of confidential government documents. Would this be the same Varadkar who had to dismantle a PR company endorsing FG using taxpayers money?. Martin busy attacking China at the moment, Varadkar just standing in for the Hypocrisy.
@Donal Desmond: And don’t forget his fake followers he had on one of the social media groups!
Leo loves a good petty argument to distract us from every catastrophic scandal of his party. An absolute con man
Varadkar is a disgrace, I’m ashamed and embarrassed he holds the office of An Taoiseach. Paul Murphy was brought before a court of law and cleared.
@time for a fair Ireland: we all saw him there when the 2 women were held in that car
@Sheila McNulty: Would that be the trial were all accused were found not guilty. The same trial in which the trial judge all be accused the guards of Lying. In contrast to the criminal trial of the banker Sean Fitzpatrick whose criminal case collapsed because of the shredding of evidence by the state. Varadkar who was involved in scandal after scandal…Is he now stating he rejects the verdict of the court. .At the best of times Varadkar is a fool, but he has again overstepped the mark.
@Sheila McNulty: so are you saying that standing near a car is, in your view, clear evidence of a criminal offence. And in this particular instance you are claiming to be more qualified to decide this to be a fact than a lawfully constructed court consisting of the national prosecution service, an independent judge and jury, and a professional defence team….
REALLY
I can’t figure out which of these tossers I dislike most
If Leo Varadkar was referring only to Johnathan Dowdall then he has to accept that the latter has been disowned by Sinn Fein and its leader. But if he was suggest that SF’s links to organised crime are more than this, he is obliged to be more specific and to state what evidence he has. If he does not, then I must conclude that his remark is only a cheap smear attempt.
@Pangur: So Sinn Fein NOW disowning Jonathan Dowdall makes it all fine and hunky dory, but Niall Collins saying he has nothing to answer for a planning decision 16 years ago when he wasn’t a member of Limerick County Council, doesn’t cut it with Murphy and Mcdonald ?
@Sean Walsh: he was a council member who VOTED at a council sub committee to sell the land to his wife, these more local sub committee’s proposals are more often than not then ‘ rubber stamped’ at full council meetings to conserve time there.
@M Bowe: where did u get that he was at the meeting about selling the land not about giving it to his wife maybe check the facts before u trash someone
@Sheila McNulty: The facts
A meeting of the Bruff Local Electoral Area (LEA), which was attended by Mr Collins, agreed that the parcel of land, in which Minister Collins’s wife, Eimear O’Connor, had reportedly expressed an interest in a month prior to the meeting, should be sold on the open market.
Pistols at dawn, and the homeless are still homeless
@Noel Donohue: What has that got to do with anything? Are the homeless not human beings with the ability to take the lead on resolving their own problems and move past their current situation? Are is the idea that the government must sort everything out for everybody?
@Noel Donohue: On a housing waiting list for 14th years with my very vulnerable special needs son and my husband with life limiting medical conditions. Receive my termination notice on 2nd January and have to be our by the 1st August, living in total fear as there’s nothing available to rent and are dependant on the council for housing. My son would not cope at all with emergency housing ad would die on the street as would my husband as he needs a machine to breathe. I have written to numerous ministers including Michael Martin and Leo Varadkar and the minister for housing and all I’ve received from them is they don’t deal with individual cases and revert back to the council all while these people in government play games in the Dail and with peoples lives. I’m just about at breaking point.
@Chris Thaunton: a comment devoid of any understanding of the situation. We are sorting out our issues by holding the people responsible for homelessness to account. Namely FF FG GP and a few others along the way.
Have enough of varadkar now to be honest. That was a disgraceful comment
Bearing in mind without the testimony of honest people and video evidence
Paul Murphy probably would have faced a jail term due to fabrication of evidence by Gardai
Who lied in court and were contradicted by video evidence which the state tried to deem inadmissible.
Shocking comment from a Taoiseach who has obviously lost the run of himself and has
An inner contempt for the common man.
@Sheila McNulty: But the court disagrees with you. Was the court wrong? Could they have made a huge mistake?
Assuming Leo is right. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. He may want to rethink what he asks for.
Muddy Leo.
A man in a lower official office, county councillor, who did not declare a vested interest in which his wife gained financially. But actually voted in favour of recommending the proposed having this single declaration of interest motion forwarded to full council for ratification.
How can such a person then be trusted in higher central government ministerial positions of power and authority???
@M Bowe: think u should get your facts right befire u comment
@Sheila McNulty: ?1 did his wife declare an interest in this last The month before Bruff sub committee meeting. ?2 did he declare a vested interest on that motion or vote in favour of it. ?3 was he legally bound to declare such an interest. ?4 was there any other declaration of interest in the purchase of that land. ?5 was the local community calling for the children’s play area on the site to be regenerated. Disprove my post by direct answers to those 5 questions!!
I’m not a fan of Leo, but you know what ? He’s right, anyone would think the likes of Paul Murphy and Mary Lou Mcdonald were whiter than white, those in glasshouses and stones come to mind.
@Sean Walsh: People in glasshouses certainly shouldn’t throw stones ,but it’s a bit hypocritical from Varadkar with the blessings of Martin to calk on Paul Murphy to answer questions. Especially since he was never charged with any offence. Now when you consider last week Martin ,Collins, FFG refused to answer questions concerning planning allegations bit hypocritical don’t you think. Varadkar and Martin will hold everyone to account, but when they are challenged…It a political attack on them…Hypocrisy at it’s best.
What I remember about that day was the fact it was a group of adults in 2nd chance education graduating
I used to work in the same field in the past
For the individuals involved this should have been a great day – their reward for hard work and study & a better future to look forward to in new careers.
Their day was ruined.
And nobody commented on this.
For me it gave the lie to the notion that socialists/progressives want to improve the lives of ordinary people.
If Joan Burton hadn’t supported FG’s Privatisation plan for the National Public Water Supply whereby every time we filled a kettle our tax money would flow into the bank accounts of D4 wealth belt investors, and the rest if FG’s Brusseldorf Auschterity Blitz on everybody, including the most vulnerable and powerless. Paul Murphy and the water protesters could have been at home watching telly instead of exercising their democratic Right to protest.
If Leo spent some time explaining where the thousands of families he voted to evict onto the roadside he might get somewhere. As it is he keeps digging electoral holes for FGFF. Let him at it!
@Paul Newsome: never knew Irish Water was privatised.. oh actually, it wasn’t.
@Paul Newsome: Fake news! Not 1000′s of familira on the roadside!
@Chris Thaunton .. yes indeed government have absolutely nothing to do with housing and homelessness. A fantastic comment from you. Everyone could benefit from your clever reasoning. Government only exist to get well paid and argue with each other
It was utterly disgraceful what Varadker said in the Dail about Murphy.
Whataboutism and inflation. The go-to when you haven’t a left to stand on.
@Louis Jacob: leg
@Louis Jacob: Oh, and conflation.
STF up Varadkar. Nobody is interested in anything you have to say.
Ah good old political theatre. Elected officials pretending to be in opposition while in reality, they’re just putting on a show for the plebs. From the comments here, it seems like it’s working, as usual.
@Brian: That’s a very derogatory statement to make about yourself
Arrest the lot of them and see what mud sticks I’d say 90% if it was ever investigated by gardai but that will never happen and we know why.. how many politicians have been jailed in this country since 1923 28 have and most were for republican activities 13 nearly 50% typically if u are a political figure u don’t go to jail
YES….. Let the DPP take another look at the video tapes…. It might put a plug in his/her or whatever Murphy now calls “it’s” self….
That anti water charge, populist gambit was by far the most stupid thing ever done in this country. Charge for the water and collect the refuse for free. Especially when 250,000 rural dwellers were paying for their water and still are. Meanwhile we have rubbish dumped all over the country and Irish Water hopelessly under funded.
It’s quite simple really, Varadkar is a democrat whereas Murphy and his henchmen are anything but . . . . !
Not once, but twice Varadkar has led the country, yet he has never won an election. The one election he was leader, the party was annihilated. He knows he is on borrowed time, and he is getting desperate.
have your say