A man, swept away like litter; a brutal accident that may decide this election
THE details are almost too gruesome to contemplate. An ‘industrial vehicle’, presumably a small JCB, a mini-forklift or something similar, goes in to clear out an area along the Grand Canal in Dublin 2, where a number of homeless people have been sleeping in tents.
Somehow, at some stage, someone notices that not all the tents are empty of people. There is a man in one of them, who has been so badly injured by what’s later described as the ‘utility vehicle’, he has to be rushed straight to hospital, where he undergoes surgery for ‘lifechanging’ injuries.
Quite rightly there is a ferocious and immediate public response to the news. A man has been shoved aside or lifted up (we don’t know the full details yet) as though he were literally a piece of rubbish.
Of course it was not deliberate, and undoubtedly there is a ‘utility vehicle’ operator out there now who is severely traumatised after this tragic turn of events. He or she was only doing their job on someone else’s orders. Although questions do need to be asked about how something like this could have happened – were the tents not all checked thoroughly before the vehicle went in?
An investigation is already under way. Yesterday, officers could be seen in white body suits examining the small bank, which is almost tucked under the bridge at Wilton Terrace, where the man’s tent had been standing.
Criticism
But while we wait for an official report on the matter, as always, opinions have already been formed and judgments and views on this horrific event are being shouted at whoever will take the time to listen.
At the risk of sounding flippant, my goodness, what horrendously bad timing for our current Taoiseach – the day after he calls a general election, when homelessness is pretty much already at the top of the national agenda.
It didn’t help that an election poster featuring grinning Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy, was hanging from a lamppost over the scene of where the homeless man was severely injured. Naturally a photo of the offending billboard went viral. It was later removed.
But it was Leo Varadkar’s own reaction to the affair that drew almost as much criticism and attention.
He was in Monaghan yesterday morning for Fine Gael’s election launch. In a rather unfortunate coincidence for him, the chosen location was the Combilift factory in Annahagh, a forklift manufacturing company.
Asked about the incident, Varadkar said he was ‘concerned,’ but also pointed out that ‘the man was offered accommodation previously’. Which doesn’t really tackle the question of how a person, regardless of what kind of help they’ve been offered before, could have been injured by a vehicle that had gone in with the sole aim of clearing away tents belonging to the homeless.
If anything, there’s a slight whiff of victim-blaming about such an observation. It’s all about timing.
But possibly even more unedifying was his call on Paul McAuliffe, the Dublin Lord Mayor, to make a statement on the matter.
McAuliffe happens to be a Fianna Fáil candidate in Dublin North-West in the upcoming General Election. A fact that was quickly pointed out to Varadkar, who then denied that he was attempting to make the incident political.
‘No, I didn’t mention blame at all,’ he told reporters. ‘I think it is reasonable that the Lord Mayor of Dublin, who is politically accountable for Dublin City Council, should also make a statement. I am sure he would be willing to do that.’
Chronic
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin was having none of it.
At the launch of the party’s election campaign, later in the day, he described Varadkar’s call for a statement from the Dublin Lord Mayor as ‘extraordinary.’ And he went on to tell reporters that ‘it is not how I would do politics.’
McAuliffe also made his feelings known. He said he was ‘disappointed’ with Varadkar’s comments, and added: ‘It seems the Taoiseach’s first thought was to play a political game.’
What an extraordinary first day in what’s going to be a particularly fierce three-and-a-halfweek-long campaign. As if housing and homelessness wasn’t already a hot-topic issue, a chronic situation that many believe Eoghan Murphy is simply not up to tackling and has made little, if any, headway in during his reign over his department.
But amidst constant and ferocious criticism, Varadkar has firmly stood by him. And it’s too late now to make any changes.
This latest incident involving a homeless person, perhaps made all the more unseemly because of where it took place – the leafy environs of the Grand Canal in Dublin 2, Murphy’s constituency – may very well have a devastating impact on Fine Gael’s hopes of a successful election.
Indeed, after yesterday, the housing crisis has been brought into even sharper focus than it was before, as if any of us thought that could happen. It could even end up getting an edge on the hospital trolley and waiting lists dilemma as being the central tenet of this election.
Ordeal
Incidents like these are, of course, most damaging and horrendous for the people who are directly affected.
In the days to come, it’s likely that this poor man’s identity will become known to us. He may want to speak publicly about his ordeal.
But regardless of whether or not we ever know his full story, the details of what happened are already possibly enough for the undecideds to make up their minds.
Who wants to live in a country where our most vulnerable are swept away like debris, even if it was an unfortunate accident?
It’s doubtful many on the Opposition benches will let this one go.
It sounds horribly crass to talk about it in these terms (after all, this is politics we’re talking about), but this could very well be the moment that no one could have ever predicted, and certainly no one ever wished for – the moment the outcome of the election was decided.