COUNCILLOR MARK DEAREY TALKS ABOUT BREXIT CHALLENGES
CHAIRMAN OF DUNDALK MUNICIPAL DISTRICT, CLLR MARK DEAREY TALKS TO MARGARET RODDY ABOUT THE INFLUENCES THAT BROUGHT HIM TO POLITICS AND HIS SURPRISE AT BREXIT DECISION
THE black and white flags of Dundalk FC are fluttering over Park Street on Friday morning. The draw for Dundalk’s first round Champion’s League tie has just been made and Cllr Mark Dearey, Cathaoirleach of Dundalk Municipal District, is pondering the club’s chances of success against Polish side Legia Warsaw. As a regular at Oriel Park, he is delighted with the club’s on-going success which he feels can only benefit the town.
The feel good factor which the club’s achievements has generated are just part of the general optimism which he feels is growing in Dundalk as the town begins to feel the benefits of the upturn in the economy.
The town, he believes is slowly emerging from the cloud which predated the recession by decades and stretches back to the era when it was dubbed ‘El Paso’ by the British press due to The Troubles in Northern Ireland.
‘I feel that there’s a sense of optimism and it’s something that we as a council need to capitalise on and work to develop,’ he says.
While his family weren’t overtly political while he was growing up, his grandfather, James Dearey was a member of Dundalk Urban District Council. ‘ There’s a photo him on the steps of the Town Hall where I stood last month when I was elected chairperson of the Municipal District.’
His great grand uncle Henry Dearey was one of the Irish Volunteers who left Dundalk for the 1916 Rising and was one of those honoured by the Dundalk 1916 Relatives Committee earlier this year. ‘It was an immensely proud occasion and again on the Sunday morning when we all gathered at the AOH Hall and marched down Clanbrassil Street,’
Growing up, he says his parents would have had an antipathy towards Charles Haughey and would have supported Garrett Fitzgerald as they felt he had the qualities needed to take the country forwards.
‘I remember The Troubles and was down the street the night the bomb went off in Kay’s Tavern,’ he recalls. ‘It left a huge impression on me and the great futility of violence which blighted all our lives. I always felt that progress would have been made far far more quickly through talks, talks and talks, and although I know that is not shared by many, it’s a firm conviction of mine.’
He talks about ‘ the fear of violence’ as being a formative issue for his political development, which are based on ‘ pacifism and the respect for diversity rather than fighting diversity’.
His political impulses where driven by reading books about the environment and globalisation, so it was a natural progression for him to get involved in the campaign to shut down Sellafield. As one of four local residents who took legal action against BNFL, along with Mary Kavanagh, Constance Short and Ollan Herr, he recalls that they had a number of legal victories in regard to the jurisdiction of the Irish courts. ‘Only last week, the EU Economic and Social Council ruled that the British Government had failed to involve us in the planning process in regard to any future nuclear power plants.’
He was, he admits, ‘ stunned’ by the vote in favour of Britain leaving the European Union. ‘I’m not going to pretend I saw it coming. When Jo Cox was murdered the week before the referendum, I thought people would sober up and vote against Brexit.’
‘It does tell us how many people in the UK feel failed by their own political leadership and how they perceive Europe,’ he says. He believes that the vote should be a wake up call to European politicians to take ownership of the European Union and to put people and citizens before the concerns of bureaucrats and the European Central Bank.
Closer to home, he fears that the fall out from Brexit could have devastating consequences for Dundalk and other communities along the Border.
While a lot remains to be decided, he feels that if the Tory Ministers insist on having freedom to restrict migration, there could be a ‘ hard border’ between the North and South.
‘As chairperson of the Municipal District I have been working alongside the chairman of Louth County Council, Cllr Paul Bell, to bring people together and make sure that our voice is heard at the top table and in Europe. We are all in this together and it’s vital that we have access the decision making process which is going to affect all our lives, right down to issues like water management, as our water supply from Castleblayney flows through
WHEN JO COX WAS MURDERED THE WEEK BEFORE THE REFERENDUM I THOUGHT PEOPLE WOULD SOBER UP AND VOTE AGAINST BREXIT
Northern Ireland. What will happen if Britain leaves the EU and can write its own environmental legislation?’
He is heartened that his motion to establish a Brexit working group received all party support at the recent meeting of the Municipal District Committee.
‘I think the local authority has a very important job to do,’ he says, although he feels that the role of local government has been diminished. ‘We need to be able to make more decisions and be able to raise capital.’
With the revelation that no social housing was built in Louth over the past two years, he says that they need to move away from reliance on private sector provision. ‘Local authorities need to be either funding to build or allowed to raise our own capital through the issuing of municipal bond or else we are going to
continue to have a housing shortage and unsuitable housing for thousands of people in our area.’
‘We need real local government reform and the ability to raise capital so that we take stock of what we should be doing and deliver it better locally.’
He welcomes the fact that Dundalk has won €4million under the development fund and feels that it is important that an urban architect is appointed to help focus on developing a safe and vibrant town centre.
He has been involved in showing potential investors around the town in recent months and feels optimistic about Dundalk’s ability to attract medium and small businesses to locate here. The streets on the town’s northern side could be used to accommodate a digital hub or enterprise unit, he argues. ‘ There is no reason why all these developments have to go on the outskirts of a town.’
While town centre businesses have to live with bad planning decisions of the past which allowed out of town retail development, he feels the time is ripe for them to fight back and that footfall will increase on the main streets if the offering is attractive enough.
‘ The footfall is in the wrong place and was put there through no fault of those trading out of those places. This is where we as a council can change the Development Plan to bring more people into the middle of town.’
‘‘We have the BIDS company in Dundalk which is a local authority initiative supported by a plebiscite of the traders in town,’
One of the projects being advanced by the BIDS office is the revival of the Maytime Festival. ‘Our arts office needs to respond and make the arts part of improving all our lives here.’
As owner of the Spirit Store, which has helped put Dundalk on the map for the music scene, Dearey feels that the arts have an important role to play in how a town projects itself. ‘Urban renewal and the arts work very well together.’
Citing Limerick, which was short listed for the European City of Culture 2020, as an example of a city which has embraced the arts to re-imagine itself, he says that they need as a council’ to rethink what the arts can do on the wider scene.’
And the Municipal District needs to move away from the notion that it is a replacement for the Town Council and embrace the villages and rural areas surrounding it, he argues. Issues such as the provision of high speed broadband and coastal protection are as important to those living in these areas as it is the population of Dundalk. Indeed, he sees climate change and coastal protection as one of the big challenges facing the government and local authorities in the coming years. ‘We are one of the top two counties in the country with a lot of development at risk from coastal erosion and rising sea levels.’
He would welcome local government reform which would allow councils to develop the expertise to develop and deliver services on a national level, as is done in the UK, although the smaller population here would see councils needing to come together on a regional basis.
‘It’s no wonder we are criticised by the public when we can’t deliver the ideas and services that we should. Often good ideas die before they can be processed and we need to move away from that to having power where it is needed.’