PEADAR TÓIBÍN FEARS that “more bike sheds and more National Children’s Hospitals” will appear if the Government does not develop proper accountability processes and take action against civil servants and ministers who are not doing their job.
In an in-depth interview with The Journal before Aontú’s think-in in Co Cavan this weekend, the party leader outlined how the single-TD party has become a major player in the opposition and its dedication to accountability in Government moving forward.
The Meath West TD disagrees with the Government’s opposition to singling out any one person or State employee for the controversial decision to pay for a €335,000 bike shelter at Leinster House in Dublin and instead investigate the decision-making processes.
Tóibín believes Aontú has become the “party of accountability” and that the controversy of the overspend for the construction of a bike shelter at the Oireachtas buildings is a “microcosm of all that’s wrong with the system at the moment”.
Taoiseach Simon Harris and Tánaiste Micheál Martin this week voiced support for investigating the decision-making process around the scandal. Harris said it was imperative to do so to make sure the same thing does not happen again.
But the leader of Aontú, who is also the party’s only current sitting TD, believes much more is needed.
“We’re going to wake up to more bike sheds and more National Children’s Hospitals over and over again into the future unless we introduce a process whereby senior civil servants and Government Ministers, who don’t fulfil their obligations or working contracts, lose their jobs,” Tóibín said.
He added said: “We want a system where senior civil servants who make decisions that our very costly or damaging to the country, or who are not fulfilling their contracts, have to lose their jobs.
“There has to be a cost for the damaging decisions that are made at very-high senior servant positions and at Government positions too.”
The TD said, in his opinion, also the soft, “no-blame” approach to the upcoming inquiry into the Covid pandemic is another example of how those in power no longer respect accountability.
He claimed that Aontú has been adamant during meetings in the Dáil that the Covid inquiry be thorough and has called for it to be made mandatory that people attend the hearings if they are asked to provide input to the State’s review of the pandemic.
The first steps towards the beginning of the long-promised examination of the Government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic will begin next month.
Tánaiste Micheál Martin has said he wants the inquiry to be an “evaluation” rather than having an “adversarial” approach.
Another example of a disregard for accountability, according to Tóibín, is the “complete disconnect” between the citizens and the “political establishment” that was caused by the State fighting alongside Apple to stop tax payments to the Government by the tech company.
This week, a long-running legal saga ended between the European Commission and Ireland after the highest court in the European Union ruled that Apple must pay €14 billion in unpaid taxes to the Irish Exchequer.
Successive Governments fought to stop this from taking place and have long claimed it was doing so to protect the State’s tax sovergience from the European Union. Tóibín claims, however, that the Governments were attempting to stop tax justice.
“The Government were not working on behalf of the Irish people with this. Given that much of it happened during really difficult economic situations, where that money was really needed, it shows a really – I think – treacherous element of the Government in terms of these issues.
“I do think that tax justice is really important as well. We’re seeing the migration of more and more wealth going to the 1% internationally and tax havens, such as the one that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael provided in the 80s and 90s, added to that tax injustice and the migration of wealth to the few.”
The current Government has been quick to point out that this week’s ruling is based on historical tax rules, that the Revenue Commission has since changed.
Tóibín said that the money from Apple needs to be spent “wisely” and that he would like to see some of it being put towards reducing the national debt.
He added that the Government should also be looking at how it can complete infrastructure with the funds as he believes transport routes particularly need to be improved.
Taoiseach Simon Harris has floated the idea of establishing a Department for Infrastructure in the next Government so that the much-needed projects around Ireland can have dedicated teams in place to complete them.
Tóibín disagreed with this plan, claiming that he did not see another need for a new Ministerial role if the current Cabinet lacks the will, focus, employment skills and competence to complete these plans as it stands, in his view.
Turning to his own constituency, Tóibín highlighted how more than 80,000 cars travel out of the centre of Co Meath each day by people going to work in Dublin and other towns and cities nearby.
He claimed that while tolls and taxes for road travel have been hiked, it has not been met with increased investment for or the completion of transport infrastructure, such as the Western Rail Corridor.
“I believe this is creating a big level of anxiousness among children in this country, as it’s leading families to break apart due to the pressures families are under.
“We want to see a lot of this infrastructure built outside of the Greater Dublin Area. Aontú would go as far to say that we want a new international city to be built in Ireland.”
Tóibín, quickly, said that it was not the job of politicians to decide where this city should be built but instead the Government should appoint an independent panel of judges to analyse where the new metropolis should go.
Tóibín says the party has spent the last five years in the Dáil trying to prove itself to the electorate as a group who can stand up for voices who go, often, unheard.
He believes the party’s successful campaigns and positive results during the local elections this year was as a result of its performance in the Dáil when submitting Freedom of Information requests and asking tough Parliamentary Questions.
In July, Aontú won eight seats during the local elections and, despite not being elected, Tóibín received more than 40,000 first-preference votes in Midlands-North-West at the European Elections.
He said the support has been as a result of his campaigning for reforms in Tusla, housing, healthcare, the immigration system and during the party’s attempts to hold the Government accountable.
“They’re significant advantages and, let’s say, elements of momentum that Aontú is bringing into this election,” the TD said. “We will be fielding a candidate in every single Dáil constituency, which is pretty significant. We want to give every single citizen an opportunity to vote for ourselves.”
Tóibín said that more will be revealed about its strategy ahead of the election over the coming weeks, but refused to reveal to The Journal the contents of those announcements only admitting that they will be seen by the party as “significant”.
One element of the party that Tóibín believes has resonated with the electorate and current members is the “grass-roots approach” it takes to politics, with 2,000 members, 60 cummans and nine elected officials.
Core to this, the Navan native said, is the “very strong” youth wing of the party, Ógra Aontú, that the group plans to expand over the next month through events and stands at Freshers’ Weeks in universities nationally.
Incredible tallies for Aontú today, for our first time contesting an Assembly Election!
— Ógra Aontú (@ogra_aontu) May 6, 2022
Any young person who voted for us today might like to consider joining our youth branch...https://t.co/oMWF1VoZUE
😊🎉🇮🇪#AssemblyElection2022 pic.twitter.com/aZNUSMR9v5
Tóibín claimed that young voters who are members of Ógra Aontú have joined the party because they “didn’t find a home” in the larger parties. He said the youth wing are a key element of the group and that many of them will stand during the next General Election.
“People with our political objectives didn’t find a home in the likes of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Sinn Féin and, in many ways, were perhaps lost to politics as a result.
“And because we’ve found that home, found that location in terms of policy for them, we do have a very strong membership in our Órga and they’re a driving force in terms of the organisation.”
In terms of when that General Election might be, Tóibín has his bet on November and said that cracks that are beginning to appear in the Coalition ahead of the Budget next month is what has influenced his opinion.
The Aontú leader vowed to voters that he will never partner with Fine Gael in Government and believes their campaigns ahead of the looming election – particularly in regards to their claims in housing policy – are misleading the electorate.
He added that, he believes, Fine Gael have made it very difficult for young people to afford homes and childcare and that their actions have delayed much-needed infrastructure such as the National Children’s Hospital and the North MetroLink.
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