Straight talking Murphy aims to bring life, work experience to Dáil
DOLLY PARTON’S hit 9 to 5 is by-election candidate Verona Murphy’s campaign theme tune, but one senses that it’s more 6 (a.m.) to 12 for this Wexford dynamo.
Another jingle in her social media arsenal is Vote Verona, based on the insanely catchy My Sharona from band The Knack.
In short, it’s hard to keep up with the Ramsgrange woman.
The 47-year-old newcomer to politics has something to say about everything from drink driving (she believes the law is too restrictive), to immigration laws (‘vetting’ is sometimes needed), to why TDs are worth their pay. Her team believe momentum is on her side and feel her friendly manner and knowledge on the burning issues of the day on the doorsteps – combined with name recognition – will help win over voters.
The daughter of farmers Paddy and Breda Murphy, the seventh of 11 children, family life was ‘as normal as anybody’s growing up’, she tells me. ‘I got to the age of 14 and decided I was going to leave home. I got into a very toxic relationship and unfortunately that didn’t work out. I left school at 15 because of it and then I ploughed on until I had Robyn at 22.’
Murphy was estranged from her family and it took a long time to heal that rift. ‘I was homeless, living on couches and in a bedsit for a time in Waterford. I never drank. I never did drugs. I just wasn’t like that. I was very hard working. My issue was I had a boyfriend who was older. There is a lot of personal stuff involved in that but it has made me who I am.’
She moved to England and worked in several jobs, including at Vauxhall. ‘At one point I worked in McDonald’s in a shift from 2 p.m. till midnight and in Vauxhall’s from 6 a.m. till 2 p.m. I never had an issue with work. I always felt in order to keep my head straight I had to be busy so no doubt it was a mechanism to keep my mental state healthy.’
She returned to Wexford and bought her first truck when she was 21. The birth of her daughter Robyn brought stability to her life and also a desire to develop her skills base. ‘At 47 I can say thank God I have my daughter who is an absolute treasure.’
Motherhood alerted Verona to the need to be educated to further herself in her life to provide for her newborn daughter. ‘I still didn’t know what I wanted to do. I studied to be a beautician in evenings in Kilkenny. That helped me through, especially socially. I was running the trucks, working hard so the beautician’s course gave me an outlet socially.’
She set up a beauticians business in her home which lasted six months. ‘Ultimately I felt I wasn’t able to charge people.’ She bought a second truck, running Verona Murphy Transport. She met Joe Druhan from Our Lady’s Island and they set up DruMur Transport. ‘We were doing virtually the same thing and said what’s the point in paying two lots of haulage licences and everything. That started in 2010.’
Building her own house on a site she bought from her father was a huge moment for her. She then decided to go back and do her Leaving Cert, sending Robyn to study at a boarding school in Kilkenny for three years and then to the Loreto in Wexford. Having some free time, she was able to study, repeating her Leaving Cert in Portobello.
Being a practical person, she found the academic experience of studying for two years challenging. ‘ The blessing of God was that they started a night course in the Wexford Campus of Carlow IT in Law which meant I could continue working, I could raise Robyn and I could go to college at night time.’
Murphy was left disillusioned having learned that even though she was hard working, paying her taxes and raising a daughter single-handedly, she still had to pay fees. ‘I couldn’t just understand as a taxpayer and I was doing this to benefit myself there was no benefit for me. I hear that from people all the time. Just because they are hard working and try to do something they are penalised. It was quite expensive.’
The only holiday abroad she has ever been on was to her brother’s wedding in Florida. Clearly she is only happy when she’s working. ‘I am busy all the time. When I did the Law degree I realised that as a haulier, I couldn’t believe the way people in the industry complained about things. There was no understanding about why things were like that.’
Armed with her Law degree, she decided to go tackle road tax for the hauliers at a time when hauliers were getting fined for underpayments of road tax at Rosslare Harbour.
In doing so she learned the necessity of legislation and wants to effect change. ‘It should have been a Revenue issue in Rosslare but a guard brought it in under the Road Traffic Act, a move we fought. I was one of the hauliers affected.’
Murphy was training under solicitor Simon Kennedy and following lobbying with Finance Minister Michael Noonan the €5,000 bill was reduced to between €900 and €500 in some cases in October 2015. Local companies Nolan and Perennial Freight won a landmark case the same month and the upshot was between the two, hauliers paid €300 and not €5,000 that year, and between €500 and €900 in the years since. ‘ That autumn I told them don’t pay the tax, we’ll pay the summons. Nobody changed that piece of legislation in 40 years and then they changed it in weeks. That was a very big win and it made me very popular within the Irish Road Haulier’s Association. (IRHA). Changing and improving legislation is what I am about at the end of the day.’
Murphy was named President of the IRHA Now in her fifth year in that role, she says she is dealing with ministers who are informed and understand her plight but she feels there is a lack of business acumen among civil servants. ‘When legislation is drawn up it doesn’t always work practically. We’ve had ministers who don’t stick up to the civil servants and that is why less and less is getting done and that is why I am prepared to go in and give it a shot to see if my life, as well as my business experience, can help.’
Politically she has been inspired by Ivan Yates, Brendan Howlin and Avril Doyle. ‘Ivan Yates was young. He was vibrant, he had huge vitality when he was in the role. I remember him and I don’t remember many. And of course Brendan Howlin and Avril Doyle.’
She feels the key attributes a TD should have are that you have to like people and be likeable and you need to have a strong work ethic. ‘People say politicians are way overpaid for what they do. I actually don’t believe that anymore. I don’t think people understand what politicians have to do and I am talking about politicians on a Saturday, on a Sunday. They are notified of every field day, of anything that goes and they are probably denigrated if they attend one and not another.’
With a reputation as a tough negotiator, Murphy says: ‘ I’m a straight talker. I may come across as often being in bad humour. Humours don’t bother me. Bullshit bothers me because I don’t suffer fools gladly. As long as it makes sense I have no difficulty, but don’t be trying to bullshit me and I’ve always been like that in business, as in everything else.’
She said having spent 30 years in the transport business surrounded predominantly by men, she has never felt she was a woman on her own, but she has felt that since the day she declared as an election candidate. She attended an event in Gorey recently where ten male politicians attended. ‘ They were all in big, heavy over-coats. They seemed to feel threatened. That was all of them. I’m not talking party specific. That is why we certainly need to have a female balance.’
Having been appointed an EU Diversity Ambassador, combined with her work managing a company and being President of the IRHA, Murphy said she would resign from both roles to devote her time to being a TD.
She says she does not regret her baptism of fire on The Tonight Show on Virgin Media when she said homelessness wasn’t an issue in Wexford. ‘Malcolm Byrne just jumped in when I said it without being allowed to finish my statement. He jumped on that, politicising it when I wasn’t prepared to do that.’
Hand picked by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to run in the election, Murphy said she thought about it long and hard. ‘I thought about what I could do to make a difference, I wasn’t going to just to be a politician. That’s not me. I do believe that I have enough experience personally and business acumen and I will certainly be able to influence and bring that perspective to government.’
She praised Wexford County Council for how it has a structure in place for dealing with homelessness, with the numbers of people currently falling from 78 to 38. ‘ Having been there I know exactly how it feels.’
She said addiction and bad personal choices lead people to become homeless.
Her election priorities include mental health, and she says that Arden House in Wexford needs to be staffed with 22 staff. She denied that Fine Gael has failed Co Wexford in this field, saying a lack of staff is the issue. ‘Currently Wexford is being served by two psychiatrists from Galway. At the moment a job offer has been made and we’re awaiting a response.’
On the doorsteps people are recognising Murphy, many from Rosslare Europort and she is hoping the 4,000 plus people employed in the county’s transport industry will consider her for a Number 1. ‘I spent most of my life in the port because I’m a haulier. I am vocal on this for a reason. Rosslare Europort is the most strategic piece of infrastructure we have here in this country. In conjunction with Waterford and New Ross we have the potential to make it Dublin Port.’
She said it has huge potential for growth, particularly post-Brexit, adding that up to €30m in EU funding can be accessed through linking with Le Havre.
The environment is high on her agenda and she is calling for investment for the Euro 6 truck, which she says has a cleaner engine than a 1.6 litre petrol engine. ‘We need an incentive from Government to become a really clean fleet. We don’t pay the carbon tax and that was my accolade in this budget.’
On housing she is against developments which include apartment blocks and is critical of housing minister Eoghan Murphy. ‘His attitude is let them have cake,’ she said.
She said more policing is needed on immigration. ‘We have to understand no matter how we feel the genuine people are coming from very bad situations, war torn countries. Nobody wants to live like that. We have to have empathy in that these people are coming from the worst possible situations. We also have to take into account the possibility that Isis have already manipulated children as young as three or four.’ She said support services in place to deal with that scenario.
She says drink driving laws have decimated rural Ireland. ‘Not just drinking. The enforcement here always appears to be on the Irish individual. There is not proportionate policing.’
On her election prospects, she said: ‘I am confident because my mental state only allows me to be confident. I have learned to live a life that says whether you think you can or you think you can’t you’re right. My state of mind is that I am in it to win it and I will take the seat. Will I die if I don’t, I won’t.’