An advanced paramedic at the cutting edge of the political arena
AFTER SIX YEARS AS A LOCAL COUNCILLOR GER CARTHY IS CONFIDENT IN HIS VISION AND DETERMINATION TO MAKE A CHANGE AT NATIONAL LEVEL.
COUNCILLOR Ger Carthy arrived onto the Wexford local political scene in Wexford in 2014 and in the last local elections topped the poll in the new electoral area of Rosslare.
While 2014 was the year he made his initial mark, the political world was something he was used to because while that election represented his first foray into the political arena, his winning a seat on Wexford County Council saw him replicate the achievements of his late father, Leo Carthy, who, in a career that lasted 49 years, was one of the most respected politicians to ever work on behalf of the people of the county.
In the 2016 General Election, Cllr Carthy ended up with over 4,000 votes and while he didn’t win a Dáil seat on that occasion he feels he did himself justice.
He is using the experience of both those election campaigns to orchestrate his current run for the Dáil.
He feels the establishment of the Rosslare Municipal District area was advantageous for him because by his own admission he ‘has a mandate in two different areas’.
‘I think now the time is right to represent those people at national level and I think in my current position as Chair of Rosslare electoral area I have a strong mandate from an area that’s been without a TD, really, since last May, since the European elections,’ he said.
Cllr Carthy is also very aware of the work his election team does for him and says running for any election is not just about the individual candidate.
‘It’s not just about me because they [the election team] are the ones that have to go to the doors as well as me,’ he said.
He also is very appreciative of the support he gets from his wife, Anne-Marie, and his family.
‘I have a very supportive wife and family and it was after consulting with them and my team that I came to the decision [to run],’ he said.
Cllr Carthy’s wife is a school principal in Rosslare Strand and with the couple having three young children the logistics, for her, in supporting his election run is something he is very aware of and appreciative of.
‘I can’t do what I do without her support and she works equally as hard as me and you can only be as good as the woman or man who is supporting you,’ he said.
For his family it’s also a case of history repeating itself as he used to canvass for his dad from when he was eight years of age while his own son, who is 9, is now canvassing for him.
While his interest in predominantly in county Wexford, Cllr Carthy feels there are ‘many issues at national level that need to be nailed down and addressed’.
‘I have worked very hard on many different issues for the last six years and my father before me for 49 years,’ he said.
The Carthy family have represented the people of Wexford for over 55 years and that’s something Cllr Carthy takes great pride in while at the same time being acutely aware of the responsibility it brings.
While he comes from a rural background he is appreciative of the support he got from the urban area of the county in the last local elections.
He said that for him stimulation of rural Ireland is a necessity because that has knock-on effects for urban areas too in addition to being a catalyst to combat rural isolation which he feels is a big issue.
In his own local area around Our Lady’s Island he has been involved in a lot of community development work including building a community coffee shop.
‘We didn’t look for handouts but we did look for help and we got that from Wexford County Council,’ he said.
‘We put in a playground, which the parish never had, and the coffee shop and new footpaths and a man said to me ‘you’re after putting a heartbeat back into the community’,’ he said.
‘Now, I didn’t do that on my own obviously, there was a good team of people involved, but when you hear kids laughing and having fun playing and running around in a playground in the middle of the village that’s fantastic,’ he added.
Cllr Carthy also has a particular role fixed firmly in his sights if he gets elected to Dáil Éireann.
‘I would love the job as Minister for Rural Development,’ he said. ‘That is where you can make some difference.’
‘We can talk all day about €250m for a bypass - and it’s lovely that we are going to open a bypass in New Ross and it’s going to cut down time heading down to Waterford and out of our own county - but if we invested even €2m into community coffee shops, community hubs, IT hubs, we would have a focal point in each parish and that’s what we need.’
He feels local authorities have ‘a massive responsibility’ to work through local GAA and soccer clubs, and other sports organisations to deal with issues such as rural isolation and counteract the negative affect of post office closures.
Rosslare Europort is also something that he feels can be utilised much more to reach its full potential.
‘We have to be on top of the game in terms of how we develop that area,’ he said.
Being a highly trained paramedic, primary care units are also a necessity for the county in Cllr Carthy’s eyes but that’s within the context of overall reform of the health sector.
He feels resource centres provide an invaluable service to communities along with the likes of the Hatch Lab in Gorey but is also of the view that much more needs to be done to support small businesses across rural and urban areas.
‘A lot of communities are not wanting big €1m handouts,’ he said. ‘They need a help up that’s all and we need to be in a position to do that.’
‘Rural Ireland has been neglected and society has changed so much.’
Cllr Carthy is very appreciative of the reputation Irish people have for volunteerism.
‘From Hook Head to Carnsore Point you have different Coast Guard units who are all volunteers,’ he said.
‘There are three different lifeboats, all volunteers,’ he added.
‘People are willing but the question is how you steer it and guide it.’
He takes great pride in being from a coastal community and he feels one of the things the Irish are known for, especially in county Wexford, is supporting each other during hard and difficult times.
‘I’m a firm believer in solutions as opposed to just being critical.
‘It could take two elections before we have things firmly on the right road but let’s get things on the agenda, let’s get things moving in the right direction.’
Cllr Carthy’s involvement in the health sector means he is also aware of the need for reform and improvement.
‘We have a shortage of 250 intensive care beds across the country which Fine Gael were to deal with and they didn’t,’ he said.
Cllr Carthy is an advanced paramedic which means he can deal with the most harrowing of injuries until the victim is transferred to hospital.
Such is his level of expertise that he can carry out a lot of the work that is done in a hospital emergency room but with that comes a very high level of responsibility.
‘I do that on the my own, on the side of the road, and you have to weigh up the pros and cons in a very short timeframe,’ he said.
Cllr Carthy is a solo responder and while he’s not on call all the time if something comes in and it’s close to him he will go to it and while he agreed that probably puts extra pressure on himself he said that’s just the way he is because he likes to look after people within the community if he can.
‘If I can make a difference I will,’ he said.
Obviously, with such a high pressure job there is a very real need to be able to step away from work and take ‘time out’.
To do that he loves spending time with his family and in particular enjoys going to GAA games with them.
‘I just love seeing Wexford play in Croke Park or wherever and love going to see them with my family,’ he said.
‘Because my own kids are involved now too it provides an added interest for me.’
He said the kick a person gets out of seeing their children play sport far exceeds the personal enjoyment a person gets from participating themselves.
‘Seeing your own children play is like an adrenaline shot.’
With a passionate interest in sport he feels the GAA is intrinsic to communities all over the county.
A former player with Our Lady’s Island, he was also very involved in delivering the Ferns Centre of Excellence in the county.
‘I’m public property because when you go out with friends, and I don’t go out that often, you have people coming up to you and some lads would say how do you put up with it but I don’t mind to be honest; it’s what you sign up for.’
‘I just get great satisfaction from being able to deliver for groups whether it’s a small thing of big thing,’ he said.
Music is another area of interest for Cllr Carthy to take his mind off the pressure of everyday life.
He was involved in the junior mummers in Our Lady’s Island and was part of the set until he was a teenager.
‘I travelled the highways and
I’M PUBLIC PROPERTY. SOME LADS WOULD SAY HOW DO YOU PUT UP WITH IT, BUT I DON’T MIND TO BE HONEST. IT’S WHAT YOU SIGN UP FOR
byways of Wexford with my dad at the time,’ he said.
His father played for the mummers and his sister was also a member.
While he has an interest in music he doesn’t get a lot of time to just sit down and listen to it but for time out his real escape is going down ‘to the Island’.
‘I just give myself a few minutes down there or sometimes if I go down to the beach, and I’m very fortunate to live so close to fantastic beaches, I go down there to give myself some head space,’ he said.
‘I have to leave the phone off though.’
When it comes to films he’s not exactly a cinema buff and admitted to this newspaper that in the 10 years he’s been married to Anne-Marie, and the 14 years they’ve been together, he’s been at the cinema once.
However, he has a passionate interest in history - which caused him to have some concern over the recent controversial Fine Gael proposal to commemorate the RIC in Ireland.
‘I come from a Republican background and that’s the way history was written at the time,’ he said,
‘I suppose there are opportunities on both sides,’ he added.
‘I have a brother who is a big fan of Michael Collins but I don’t see him [Collins] as a Fine Gaeler. I see him as a man who brought the fight to the Brits and got a bullet.’
He went on to comment: ‘I think there is more to Michael Collins than just the Free State. I think it was gerrymandered in a way that he was sent to do the dirty work and other people reaped the benefit.’
‘History has been kind to him and I suppose we could talk about what would have been? or what could have been?’
Cllr Carthy loves historical sites such as Kilmainham Jail and Collins’ Barracks.
‘I was very honoured to be mayor in 2016 because you don’t get those kinds of opportunities too often,’ he said. ‘I’ll never get it again.’
With regard to current Government figures, and in view of his interest in history, he said: ‘There are times when they need to look at themselves in a mirror and ask themselves a few questions but a lot of them are not willing to do that.’
‘They are driven by power and some of them are really living in cuckooland,’ he said.
He feels that an effective apprenticeship at local level is required before someone runs for the Dáil.
‘I am six years on the council and it takes you that time to see how it rolls and how the system works because that’s great grounding to know,’ he said.
‘I don’t know how someone could go from being Johnny on the side of the road to being a member of parliament.’
He values advice he received from former Wexford councillor, Tony Dempsey, shortly after he was elected to the council in 2014: ‘I remember I was pushing a point fairly strong and Tony said to me ‘listen Ger, I’ll give you some advice, a young curate never got a parish’.’
‘It’s something that stuck in my mind,’ said Cllr Carthy.
He feels there are a lot of good people in politics but their focus needs to change: ‘They need to have Wexford at the top of their agenda because they become stagnated in party politics.’
Being an independent candidate is something he is proud of and he also feels that independent TDs have an extremely important role to play because they are not bound by party policies.
‘There are TDs who are doing absolutely nothing and raising issues that they cannot do anything about,’ he said.
He said he can’t deal with a mess but his election team are quick to keep that side of him in check.
‘If the van is a mess and cable ties or something might be laying around I’ll say to the lads you have to clean it up but they’ll say no Ger just shut the doors because you’re not the one putting the posters up,’ he said.
‘I am guilty of being someone who likes to have control because I find it hard to delegate,’ he added.
‘I did this time on this campaign because I didn’t really get up the ladder much with postering; every other time I did because I wanted them in my own special place but this time I didn’t.’
He goes to Mass every Sunday - and feels he gets something from going to church,
‘I was brought up to go to the Catholic Church and I was reared in a strong Catholic household,’ he said.
‘I continue that and my wife is spiritual as well,’ he added.
‘I get something from it and I feel a little bit better for going.’
On occasion he visits a church during the week and said that when he does so he finds a peace and calm there.
‘It might just be for a few minutes but when you get in there at 2 p.m. in the afternoon and there’s no-one there you find a bit of peace in that.’
‘There were bad eggs in the Catholic church and men who did horrific things across this county and country but there are an awful lot of good people in there too,’ he said.
‘There are still a lot of good people in the church and it’s not fair to judge everyone.’
He is looking forward to his son’s First Holy Communion later this year: ‘I feel that is something that is going to form part of 2020 in a good way.’
‘I am a firm believer that the time has come to allow priests to be married as well,’ he added.
‘I think that could only be a good thing because married priests would bring that experience to the church and it doesn’t matter whether they are gay or straight either.’
‘The Catholic church has an important role in rural isolation but also in mental health, but then even the bingo plays a very important role in that too,’ he said.
Cllr Carthy was very close to his father and he said he still thinks about him a lot.
‘My father is 10 years dead in September and I remember on the day of his funeral it was said he was a legend in his own lifetime and I think that was a great definition of the time he had spent in politics and music,’ he said.
With regard to his father’s passing Cllr Carthy said: ‘You learn to live with it but I don’t think you ever get over it.’
‘Myself and him were very close because of politics and I suppose I was the natural successor to him.
‘I suppose I was always the one who would be trying to take over his seat,’ he added.
He ‘very much’ misses his father around election time.
‘I’d like to be talking to him about stuff and he’s no longer around,’ he said.
‘It’s nice to go up to his grave and all but it’s not the same.’
Cllr Carthy admitted that still gets emotional sometimes when he thinks about his father.
‘I make no apologies for it I would cry and odd time still when I think about him but I think that’s a good thing and I think men don’t cry enough. That’s just part of who I am.’
I WOULD LOVE THE JOB AS MINISTER FOR RURAL DEVELOPMENT. THAT IS WHERE YOU CAN MAKE SOME DIFFERENCE