Key campaign issues are climate, farming and mental health services
WEXFORD’S Green Party candidate is Paula Roseingrave, who lives in Coolgreany in the north of the county, came late to the campaign following on from Karin Dubsky who decided not to run again following last year’s by-election.
Taking up the baton, Paula admitted that she never set out for politics, being a counselling psychologist for the last three decades professionally, but that now makes sense for her both personally and politically, having joined the Green Party two years ago.
‘We have a window now, we’re counting down from ten for a green decade. Rural Green Party candidates like me, we are hoping to sit down with farmers and hear their stories and compromise.
‘Nobody knows the environment better than farming, and the importance of agriculture to overall prosperity of our country, this is the same as it ever was when my father told me about it years ago’.
Paula, who is originally from Dublin, had a very colourful career that began in the USA, where she first worked at an autism institution.
There, with her degree in psychology from UCD in hand, she worked with people from children to adults and saw first hand the experience of parents struggling to cope.
‘It was a hugely important experience, being very challenging but an incredible important learning curve.
‘Now, politically for me disability is a really important issue. I’ve had a hearing difficulty since I was a very young child, and I feel like those with hearing loss are almost invisible.
‘One of my children has dyspraxia, and we were lucky that I was able to give up my career. I could see he needed so much more support and help and I’m aware of parents not being able to do that even though it’s an absolute necessity.
‘I’m very concerned about this matter with regard to services generally and I have a heightened understanding of mental health that’s specialised. Here in Wexford there’s a huge gap in services, from psychiatry to in-patient beds.
‘GPs are under pressure, what they don’t have are multidisciplinary groups that would reduce waiting lists and hospital space. Where we need to go is to be able to provide localised support and help. We need next government to do this.
‘Particularly for young people, we need to provide resilience training, to prevent people from going down a road that they can’t come back from’.
Paula has suffered from depression before, and this motivated her career path to help others and she now holds a post graduate qualification in trauma.
She went through a personal journey as a child, growing up in a large family, looking up to her father who was elected to economic and social committee within the then EEC.
‘I grew up with strong knowledge of community development. What really matters to me is that I may differ for you on your view, but I’ll damn well fight for your right to say it’.
Paula enjoys being involved in campaigns putting her shoulder to the wheel, and was key to the development of services available for patients and families in relation to cystic fibrosis at St Vincent’s Hospital, Dublin.
Paula even has a special award in the St Vincent’s University Hospital Cystic Fibrosis Unit Awards named after her, following from work she did for five years in the unit, developing ground-breaking programmes in psychological care for adults with CF, their families and also for the professionals involved in delivering CF care.
This interest in health is something she is bringing in to her campaign, and she explained that developing this unit was a matter of being up against a government at the time in the 1990s from a grassroots campaign.
‘It taught me so much about the importance of medicine to address issues and it required a lot of forward thinking and understanding the purpose behind a campaign.
‘We cannot have mistakes made like the financial gap at the national children’s hospital, and the Green Party is very sensible in spending what we have so that it is sustainable’.
Developing a future interest in politics later on in life, Paula set up a special interest group in politics and the environment within the Psychological Society of Ireland.
Her key campaign issues now are climate, transport and farming as well as both health and mental health services.
‘We all need to be doing so much more for the environment but small changes can make a huge difference. If we are all trying to do within our budgets and what we can, that’s all going to have positive changes to the environment
‘We must work as community to bring the ecological basis of this county up to speed.
‘Around carbon tax, I feel that most people think taxation is a dirty word, on a psychological level. There’s different strokes for different folks. Party leader Eamon Ryan accepts, knows that will come down to a midpoint. We want to incentivise people, we want them to feel good about what they do, and get them into their local communities, to offset that for them.
‘We have to use positive and negative reinforcement, like I would have done in the US, for those who are doing individuals that are doing the best their can’.
Paula said she is determined to public transport is accessible to every part of the county.
‘A lot in the south of the county are very frustrated that they don’t have good enough access to rail and bus services as we have in the north of the county. There is very much a gap there.
‘It’s absolutely about achieving a balance between the needs of the community and agriculture, local businesses, the elderly, so that those people are not getting cut off ’.