Dole reality TV show? No thanks, said SF and Clare Daly
A TV3 programme about politicians exploring life on the dole was snubbed by both Sinn Féin and former Socialist Workers Party TD Clare Daly.
Dáil On The Dole will air on TV3 this week and follows four TDs as they meet constituents and experience the difficulties of living on benefits.
Catherine Byrne of Fine Gael, Willie O’Dea of Fianna Fáil, Joanna Tuffy of Labour and Independent TD John Halligan will all appear on the programme.
The first episode of the four-part series airs tomorrow night at 9pm on TV3 with Ms Byrne who meets Laura Spencer, a single mother with two young daughters living in a flat in Dublin’s inner city. Last week, Ms Byrne, said: ‘It may give people another insight into what they believe is a stereotype politician that we aren’t.’
TV3 said the programme would give politicians and voters the chance ‘to walk a mile in each other’s shoes’.
But the MoS has learned that Clare Daly and the Sinn Féin party’s TDs refused to take part.
When asked why, one Sinn Féin senator described the show as ‘grotesque’. Yesterday, the party’s spokesman on workers’ rights, David Cullinane, wrote on Facebook: ‘Four well-paid politicians cannot replicate what it is like to live on the dole, its long-term implications, its daily realities and the fear of not getting a job by spending the dole equivalent for a week. A smiling and condescending Willie O’Dea seeking publicity is the last thing they need.’
A source revealed that both Sinn Féin and Ms Daly were approached to take part of the series but declined, stating they already knew what their constituents were dealing with. ‘Both said, “We are already walking a mile in their shoes. We know everything you are going to come across”.’
A Sinn Féin spokesman said the party turned down the offer because its TDs already understand the difficulties their constituents are facing. ‘Unlike other parties we don’t feel Sinn Féin representatives need to take part in a reality television programme to understand how ordinary people live.’
Ms Daly did not reply to requests for comment.
Responding to the criticism, Mr O’Dea said the show was more about helping people on social welfare than trying to live like them.
‘Mr Cullinane has got the wrong end of the stick, but either way, I won’t be lectured by Sinn Féin – they are a shower of chancers.’
A spokesman for TV3 said that Dáil On The Dole was an ‘insightful and uplifting series… Mr Cullinane should wait until he sees the first programme before making such remarks.’
Dáil On The Dole begins tomorrow night on TV3 at 9pm