SCHOOL OF THOUGHT
Local Gorey students see political rivalry in action
POLITICS and society students at Gorey Community School welcomed their two local TDS, Fine Gael’s Michael D’Arcy and Fianna Fail’s Malcolm Byrne, for a live debate as they got into the spirit of things as General Election 2020 approaches at speed.
Both students and staff in attendance said that it was an exciting debate, which saw the two candidates go head to head on topics selected by students.
Principal Michael Finn was in the audience, and he described the event as a great opportunity to engage students with the realities of politics.
‘As far as I’m aware this was the first event of its kind, and it was organised by teachers Brendan O’Sullivan and Liz Russell. This year we really pushed for getting students interested in using their vote, and we managed to get 60 students aged 18 to register to vote before the deadline.
‘The debate itself was open to members of the student council, fifth and sixth year classes and staff. It brought general election 2020 to life for the students.
‘The topics were all very good, from young peoples’ motor insurance costs to youth mental heath and local school places, all very topical issues. We had two students moderating the debate and it was certainly very energetic.
‘I had the strong sense that both Michael D’Arcy and Malcolm Byrne treated it as sincere debate’.
Both politicians are former students of the old CBS, and so they felt a certain comfort in their albeit new playground.
Michael D’Arcy has almost eight years’ experience as a TD, but this served not only as an opportunity for him to boast but also as a target for Mr Byrne to criticise the national impact he has had.
Malcolm Byrne is Wexford’s newest TD, but his lack of experience at Dáil level left him with less to flaunt and Minister D’Arcy fewer areas of attack.
While the debate was staged on a smaller platform, just like in the recent Leaders Debate, the Fianna Fáil TD made a strong start, before the Fine Gael TD showed his experience of debating at the highest level of politics.
A natural start for the students was to question Minster D’Arcy on motor insurance, an area of importance to them and also since Mr D’Arcy has been Minister of State at the Department of Finance since June 2017, with responsibility for insurance.
Mr D’Arcy urged students to get a black box car insurance, whereby tele-matics equipment is used to monitor their driving and the charge is based on performance, which he said can see them save up to 35 percent on insurance.
He said that in his time as minister, insurance costs have plummeted and are currently not far above what they were decades ago.
‘When I got car insurance first 33 years ago, the cost of my car insurance was 1,000 punts. The cost for most underage drivers, maybe going onto a parents insurance, is €1,500. So to put that into context, IR£1000 33 years ago equates to around €1,200, so in the grand scheme of things it hasn’t gone up that much in almost a third of a century’.
Malcolm Byrne discredited his town rival’s work as Minster of State, and said that he has failed to take on vested interests to bring car insurance down for young people.
Michael mentioned an expert group that came forward with 27 recommendations on insurance, and that 25 of these are implemented, but Malcolm Byrne questioned his response to the challenge for young people.
‘The reality is it hasn’t gone down and all of the evidence from all of the reports is that if you go and check your premium, it has gone up over the last number of years.
‘This issue of motor insurance hasn’t just materialised overnight. Michael mentioned the expert group coming forward with 27 recommendations, but hardly any of those have been implemented. After two and half years as minister responsible, has he taken on the vested interests in the sector has he taken on insurance companies, and more importantly is the costs to individuals and businesses under control, and quite frankly , the answer is no’.
Mr D’Arcy disputed this, describing Malcolm’s comments as ‘incorrect’.
‘It’s important to respond with accurate information, not with made-up lies. Malcolm made the point that hardly any of those were implemented, there were 27 major recommendations, 25 are implemented and concluded, so it’s important for you to have the correct information’.
From here, the deputies spoke about asylum seekers, urging the youngsters to greet them with open arms and to welcome them.
Mr D’Arcy accounted how Kilanerin GAA club f or which he is chair visited a refugee centre in local Courtown and invited them to the cl ub.
On the topic of mental health services, Mr Byrne again criticised the current Fine Gael government on policy.
‘We have had a situation whereby the consultant psychiatrist for this county resigned 18 months ago because government policy was not fit for purpose, it wasn’t serving the mental health needs of people’.
He also said that a conversation on the decriminalisation of cannabis needs to be had by government.
‘I wouldn’t be in favour of the decriminalisation of all drugs but in Portugal they have adopted an approach whereby here, we treat drugs as a criminal justice issue where as it should be treated as a health issue. There is evidence regarding the decriminalisation of Cannabis and it has worked in US states and some European countries. I think that it is something that needs to be on the table in terms of discussion’.
Mr D’Arcy said that in light of recent events in Ireland, going down the route of drugs is very dangerous.
On climate change, Mr Byrne claimed ‘it’s time to catch up’ on a green movement.
Mr D’Arcy, however, said that in his tenure, environmental investment grew from €10 million to €160 billion, and that if given another opportunity in government, Fine Gael hope to increase the figure further.
As the debate drew to a close, the TDs were asked by students about the similarities between their political parties and why they garner the votes of the Gorey electorate.
‘We’re not two sides of the same coin. I’m about solutions. There was an issue with places in school for people in Gorey. I rolled up my sleeves, didn’t talk about it, we got the problem solved,’ said Mr D’Arcy.
Throwing in a final dig which struck a nerve with deputy Byrne, he said ‘If you want someone who is going to write a big blog about it, that’s Malcolm, if you want someone to get the job done, that’s me’.
Malcolm Byrne said that he was different to Michael D’Arcy.
‘I believe that unlike Michael making promises on everything, I’m not going to make promises on anything. Michael the problem is, you’ve been in government for nine years, you haven’t had the answers in nine years so you can’t come here now and expect that in 90 minute or less try to account for all of your failures’.
Mr D’Arcy responded saying: ‘For six out of nine years we had no money because his party destroyed the economy, and the wellbeing of our country’.