The future of the EU is by far the biggest challenge we face
In a frank interview, President Higgins talks about the housing crisis, the politics of fear... and offers advice to Donald Trump
HE AND his wife may have greeted more than 60,000 people at Áras an Uachtaráin over the past five years, but that doesn’t stop President Michael D Higgins from rising from behind his massive polished desk and extending a trademark warm smile and handshake to yet another visitor. Dressed in a tweed three-piece and purple tie, he’s been in his study, which overlooks the front lawns of the 265-year-old mansion, poring over legislation that has been sent to him to be signed into law before the end of 2016.
The vast bookshelves behind his desk feature an array of trinkets and decorations, including two notable framed photographs: one of the two former presidents Mary Robinson and Mary McAleese with President Higgins on the night of his inauguration; the other of the President and actor Martin Sheen.
He also proudly points out a picture on the wall of the late rock stars Phil Lynott and Rory Gallagher, his photo collection a nod to his dual passions for politics and the arts.
The past five years after his election by a large majority in 2011 have ‘literally flown’, he says.
‘I think I had certain advantages when I came in. I had been a cabinet minister in two of the cabinets and [had] a long period in both the Dáil and the Seanad. It meant I could get stuck in pretty quickly to what I’m doing now,’ he says, pointing to his desk. ‘I have eight Bills to sign between now and New Year’s, and, it’s always like that. The legislation comes to the President as soon as the Dáil and the Seanad are completed.’
And it’s certainly been a busy year, given the historic commemorations, which he lauds.
This year his focus will be very much on the international economic order: ‘There is an immediate challenge with Brexit, but there is a bigger issue that we must not neglect and this is: “What is the future of the European Union itself in terms of its aspiration and idealism?” You can’t ignore the changes that are taking place in Poland, Hungary and Italy and France.’
One of his major concerns is about growing inequality across the world and how this is undermining institutions at home, within the EU and on the wider international arena. He is particularly concerned about the climate of fear caused by the migrant crisis and the failure of international institutions to cope.
‘There’s no doubt about it that inequalities are growing over the world. Most acutely, for examthe ple, in the United States, it is happening across Europe and to some extent it is happening here because we are a very small economy.’
President Higgins says that all of the energies in the short term should go into restoring ‘legitimacy in the possibilities of Europe.’
‘It’s one thing when a government loses popularity – that’s one which you can change through elections. But if the system itself, and particularly its institutions, lose a connection with what we call the “European Street”, that’s a different type of legitimacy.’
He also says Ireland and Europe are facing a new reality after the election of Donald Trump as US President, especially with regard to the performance of the economies across Europe and the impact on our own domestic growth.
‘We are in an entirely new situation now. In relation to after the United States election, we are all waiting. All the indications are that [US] deficit will increase. The head of the Fed is a very able woman and it will be interesting to see her first message after January the 20th [the inauguration of President Elect Trump] and yes, there are checks and balances in the American economy.’
He smiles when asked what he thinks of the President Elect, Donald Trump, who swept to victory with massive support from working-class voters.
‘Whoever people choose as their head of State, when they visit here are treated with the utmost courtesy, no more than in fact when heads of state dine and all the rest of it. The point about it is, there is a time for sympathy and there is a time for analysis.’
He’s keen enough to offer one piece of advice: ‘I say, think a little longer than a tweet,’ he laughs.
More seriously, President Higgins warns that the legitimacy and cohesion of our institutions can only be sustained through what he called ‘sufficiency’ – that is, defining a minimum standard of living below which people should not be expected to sink.
He smiles when asked what he thinks of Donald Trump
‘You could do everything we have agreed to in relation to stability and fiscal stability above a certain line – but you must define the line in relation to nutrition, food, health, housing and so on,’ he says.
During our interview, he makes it clear that this applies to how political and economic decisions are taken both at home, across Europe and with regard to developing nations.
‘I think the wind has changed direction and if the penny has now dropped I would like there to be nothing vague about what I am saying. I think we really do need to look at how the institutions can be reconfigured and we need to look at reconfiguring structures in Europe.
‘We need particularly to look at the structure in relation to the UN.’
President Higgins also feels that many of the greatest challenges facing the world – be they environmental or relating to security, trade, or war and peace – are often ignored by the UN Security Council members, the US, Russia, China, France and the UK: ‘The Permanent Five in the Security Council are reflective of an institutional arrangement that came about after the Second World War. They are hardly reflective of the current balances that are there or that are emerging in global terms.
‘If you are looking at the population figures as they are now, if you go past nine billion between 2030 and 2050 – which will happen – then 50% of this increase will take place in aid countries. You are going to have about 24% of the population of the planet in 2050 living on the continent of Africa. That gives a huge urgency to the good news of 2016, which was the agreement to do something about climate change in Paris,’ he adds.
‘These aren’t abstract matters at all, the fact of the matter is that if you have 1.2 billion young Africans between 18 and 25, sustainable development, transferring technology, must enable them to stay and be able to see a future within their systems. If they don’t, they move to African cities and to Europe – and you get a huge, enormous migration tsunami.’
At the same time, President Higgins says that ‘our planet is a migratory planet whether we like it or not and the sedentary world is a bit of an illusion that we have lived with for a very long time.’
In order for Europe to deal with migration pressures, he says we need proper support systems.
‘One of the things you do is that you address the humanitarian needs and access the short-term needs [of migrants]: provide education, and put institutions to handle this in place.’
He is also conscious of the danger of politicians capitalising on the fear of migrants: ‘What we are now dealing with in Europe in many cases is a kind of very dangerous set of opportunists. And I understand it. If you are dealing in an area of long-term unemployment and it has a huge young unemployment core to it and in geographical terms is “ghettoised” and so forth, these are opportunities [in which] those who do not subscribe to universalism in any sense can simply apply the politics of fear.’
The conversation turns to the subject of Europe and terrorism – though the President has been involved in politics during some of the worst periods of turmoil here at home. ‘I was a very young senator in 1973 and I was 32,’ he says. ‘I remember when there
‘It’s a migratory planet whether we like it or not’
were very threatening times here. We have a certain background in a way, but one of the things that is very important in Europe and if you read the statement that I gave after Paris, Nice and Brussels: we must not surrender to the politics of fear.’
As far as Irish politics is concerned, social solidarity was a big part of President Higgins’s Christmas message in 2016.
When asked about the occupied Apollo House in Dublin and the current housing crisis, he addresses the issues of homelessness and poverty with passion.
‘The great good news now is, one, that consciousness has increased – the second is the willingness of volunteers to come forward… and the generosity of the people. Lurking in the background is the idea of … if you are asked to make a choice between what are near absolute rights of property that are being claimed and the immediate necessary rights of people to live, I think people are trying their best – but you need to be able to sort this out and say, “You need lots of social housing”.’
Mr Higgins says the State must act, centrally and locally. ‘When I was a young councillor, I was elected first in 1974 to Galway County Council. Local authorities were building houses. The State centrally and the State locally has to come back into the picture in a very strong way as a responsible housing manager.
‘You equally have to say, as well as that, you cannot rely on solving this problem as a residue of the private market.’
He adds: ‘It is ridiculous that you have people eight and 10 years in direct provision, and it is just wrong to say that “you can only have access to the kitchen during these hours”.’
The President is full of praise for Brother Kevin of the Capuchin Centre. ‘But Brother Kevin can’t give a warm meal to a woman who comes in with her children from the hotel because she has no way of heating it up. She can’t take anything except a litre of milk because she has no access to a fridge. Well, this is 2016 and you know, you should follow the path of these inadequacies and sort them.’
He is conscious of the anniversary of the Rising – and its ideals – in the context of the housing crisis: ‘The other side of it is, in 2016, 100 years after the Rising. Michael Collins once spoke about walking down the streets of Dublin when it was free, but the point about it is, walking around Dublin that is being prepared for dereliction so that vulture funds can lean on the planning system is something we have to have a long think about.
‘I think at the end of 2016, let’s look at the good news. Consciousness is raised, proposals are being put forward and good people are trying their best so 2017 can be a great year if we solve this problem that’s here for us at home. It’s not just in Dublin but is in all the cities throughout Ireland.
‘Then as we go forward into the European Union, Ireland should be the country that is speaking about the possibilities of the EU and making the case for why we are not going to run off the field in the face of the politics of fear and if the politics of fear turn into the politics of hate, then we will confront it.’