Austerity Report - Hot Press meets Michael Fitzmaurice

It was one of the political coups of the decade. When Ming Flanagan was elected as an MEP, it left a vacancy in his Roscommon-South Leitrim Dáil constituency. As the runners and riders became clear, the assumption was that Fianna Fáil’s Ivan Connaughton would profit at the by-election.

Instead a candidate backed by Ming – a political unknown from Galway by the name of Michael Fitzmaurice – snuck in by hoovering up second and third preferences from everone else, securing the seat on the seventh count with 14,881 votes to Connaughton’s 12,050. It was quite an achievement...
Earlier this year Fitzmaurice had been elected to Galway County Council but the anti-austerity campaigner decided that he could achieve a lot more in national politics.
“I was actually very settled in the council,” he says. “I was getting a lot of work done in the local area. But I had to make a decision. Was I going to stay put and still be able to look my children – and the teenagers and the 20-somethings that come home every Christmas and leave their mothers distraught after Christmas when they’re going back to Australia and Canada and England – in the eye? And I can give out to the telly and I can listen to the radio and criticise everyone.
“I made a decision that I can try and highlight – and talk normal about! – what’s going on, to try and help not just one part of Ireland, all parts of Ireland. If you believe you can do something or help in any way, there’s an onus on you to step up to the mark and go for it.”
Is it a disadvantage being from outside the constituency?
“There’s a river dividing me from the constituency,” the straight-talking TD avers, “but how many people have come from the west and represent people in Dublin? You look at where every TD in Dublin comes from – they’re not all from Dublin. I am an Irishman. I’m west of Ireland. And I believe that it doesn’t matter where you come from.”
Given all of the controversy surrounding the setting up of the company, what’s his take on Irish Water?
“Irish Water is a total fiasco,” he sighs. “The way it has been set up, it’s a quango that is badly thought out. I do believe that we need one company or one utility looking after water in Ireland. But at the moment, the way Irish Water are doing it, they basically have put the cart before the horse.
“I’ve said from the beginning that I’m chairman of a group water scheme, so I better make that clear to you. I believe that people have a fundamental right to have enough free water to wash themselves and cook with, basically for their daily needs.”
Having said that, Fitzmaurice has nothing against water meters.
“Meters will detect leaks, whether it’s in towards the house or on the pipe system. I believe that meters are actually a good thing. On our scheme, that we run voluntarily, we put in meters 10 years ago. We were using 900 cube of water — a cube is 1,000 litres — per week. When we put in our meters and found our leak, we brought it down to 470 cube. I believe that for what people use, it should be free, but if you abuse it, you should pay.”
When asked which politicians he particularly admires, Fitzmaurice cites the late Nelson Mandela as an inspiration.
“Mandela would be the politician I most admire, because he was convicted, he was jailed, he was put in the wrong and he believed in his goal. He believed in his vision. He dreamed his dream and he brought it to reality. No matter where you go in life, that’s what a good person is about.”
What about Irish politicians?
“I would have had respect for the people that died for our country,” he says. “I would have respect for them in 1916. I hate to see what them people died for, that we’re signing away day after day to Europe, and the way we’re being bullied and intimidated by them. That boils my guts some...”
While he welcomes the banking inquiry, he’s angry about the fact that we need one. “It should never have happened. The way we went and signed the thing away. I don’t believe we should have done that. I believe we went into a tunnel that there was no way out of. I believe if we had gone a harder road and basically burned the bond holders at the time, we’d be out of it now.”
Is he optimistic about Ireland’s future?
“I’m optimistic about the Irish people,” he says. “If you look at what Irish people in communities right around this country do day in, day out, how they’ll rally together in times of difficulty, you can and would be optimistic. Because they’re resilient, they’re fighters. While a lot of steam might have been taken out of them the last few years, they appear to be getting a second breath and coming back. You have to believe in people. I certainly believe in them.”