LAST UPDATE | 23 Nov
SIMON HARRIS HAS said that the disability sector worker who was at the centre of a viral video in which she tells him that he has ignored the sector while in government “was absolutely owed an apology” from him.
The woman earlier told The Irish Times that she felt “shaken” after her confrontation with the Taoiseach.
Activists and political parties have criticised Harris after he walked away from the woman mid-conversation who claimed that he had “done nothing” for the sector while in government.
The Taoiseach was canvassing in Kanturk in north west Cork yesterday when he was stopped by a woman who identified herself as working for a Section 39 organisation.
Section 39 organisations are groups which have service legal agreements with the HSE to provide health and social care within communities.
In the interaction, filmed by RTÉ, she said of the Budget: “We’ve fought for our money … but we are ignored.”
Harris responded: “No, no, not at all.”
“Yes, we were.”
“No, you weren’t.”
Fine Gael leader Simon Harris was approached during a canvass this evening by a woman who says she is a carer, and who said she believes the Government has "done nothing for us" | follow live: https://t.co/eUoCK3Qb5Y pic.twitter.com/MXiN9b60Ke
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) November 22, 2024
The woman proceeded to talk about support for people with disabilities. She said the sector is “a joke”.
“You have done nothing for us. Our people are suffering.
“I’m very passionate about my job.”
Harris said he too is very passionate about disability.
The woman responded: “But there’s no mention in the Budget whatsoever.”
You ignored them. You ignored the carers.
Harris then repeatedly said “that’s not true”, before shaking the woman’s hand and walking away.
She said: “Keep shaking hands and pretend you’re a good man”.
He comes back for a moment and she says to him: “You’re not a good man.”
He responds: “You don’t think I’m a good man”, before leaving again.
Speaking to The Irish Times today, the woman, Charlotte Fallon, said she was left in tears and felt “shaken” after the interaction.
“I was shaken, I was upset. I exited through the back door because I just didn’t want to go back into that crowd,” she told the newspaper. “I came down the laneway and the campaign was passing by. I wish I had said more.”
She said that the Taoiseach had rang her this morning to apologise.
“He said he was very sorry and that he had a long day. He said it was subject he was passionate on, and I said so am I. He said there was no need for that, you were only doing your shopping, I was harsh.
“He said I deserved to have my say. I’m glad I got the apology.”
Speaking to reporters this afternoon, Harris said that he regretted the way he had handled the situation and had called Ms Fallon this morning.
“I’m annoyed with how I didn’t give that person, Charlotte, the time last night,” he said. “She deserved that time.”
Harris said he wouldn’t be making excuses for his behaviour. “The buck stops entirely with me.”
He said that he had been around the country and had hundreds of conversations in the past few days, and learned a lot from listening to people.
“I’m very sorry that didn’t happen last night,” he said.
The video of Harris’s campaign trail interaction was shared widely on social media, and it’s been described as “uncomfortable to watch” and a “car crash in slow motion”.
Disability non-profit Access For All said of Harris: “We never directly attack individuals but this flippancy has really upset us.
They said that carers “don’t seem to matter much” to the government.
This is the moment Simon Harris ignores the pleas of a woman around family carers and the poverty we live in.
— Access For All Ireland (@AccessForAll7) November 23, 2024
We never directly attack individuals but this flippancy has really upset us.
As people who follow us know we have campaigned long and hard for our family carers and… https://t.co/aRmshsUqal
Sinn Féin TD David Cullinane said: “It is one thing for Simon Harris to repeatedly tell Mary Lou in the Dáil that she is wrong when she factually points out Government failures.
“It’s something else entirely when he does it to members of the public. Running away from debates & now running away from the public.”
Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns said Harris’s “dismissive attitude” is emblematic of the government’s “lack of interest in the sector”.
Labour Senator Marie Sherlock said that the “contemptible attitude of Fine Gael to Section 39 organisations must end.”
Sherlock said that the three government parties have “all but ignored workers in the community and voluntary sector who deliver essential services through Section 39 organisations”, and said that the carer filmed speaking to Harris showed the “years of neglect” workers in the sector have faced.
One X user, a carer, said: “You could hear the pain in her voice and he just didn’t want to listen. That’s the problem, [he] will only really listen when someone is giving him a positive comment, he doesn’t want to hear it when you’ve issues you want addressed. I hope she’s doing ok and fair play.”
Harris gave an initial response to the criticism on an Instagram Live this morning.
“I was in Kanturk last night at the end of a very long day and I was talking to a woman who works in a Section 39 disability organisation and she was raising issues with me,” he said.
“I want to say I didn’t give her the time that I should’ve given her and I feel really bad about that because it’s not who I am.”
Section 39 (health and disability services) workers are employed by agencies in the community and voluntary sector. Workers have taken issue with them being on different terms and conditions than their HSE counterparts.
An agreement to increase funding for pay was reached in the WRC in October 2023, with the health minister stating in September this year negotiations regarding further pay funding for organisations in receipt of funding via section 39 arrangements are currently ongoing.
Harris admitted that he “should’ve taken the time to engage” with the woman in Cork yesterday, but that he knows the government needs to make it “an absolute priority issue”.
“We’ve got to look after people with disabilities. We’ve got to empower them. We’ve got to support carers better and those who work in disability services.”
He added that he hopes to have a longer conversation with the woman so that she and other voters know he’s “in the business of listening, of learning, and of acting when it comes to disability services”.
One carer who spoke to The Journal said they “can’t imagine how that amazing woman is feeling” today. “I hope she has support.”
“For years this sector has been seen as a necessary ‘drain’ a ‘burden’ on the state’s resources. Politicians make themselves feel good about themselves by offering crumbs of charity to those ‘less fortunate’,” they said.
“No matter how often these politicians tell you they care – when they show you who they are and what they think, like Simon Harris and his predecessor Leo Varadkar did – believe them.”
They added that Harris’s response to the backlash was “no less distressing” than the original comments.
“His party, his politics and indeed most of our value system in society believes that people with disabilities are less valuable than able-bodied people.
“With this belief comes the arrogance associated with remarks like – ‘look at all we’ve done for you’.
“This belief is founded on good old fashioned capitalism – if humans aren’t units of production – driving value in society then they are worth less than a worker who can produce value.”
Fine Gael Deputy Leader Helen McEntee also came to Harris’s defence.
“It had been the end of a very, very long day,” she said.
“I’ve been with him around the country. He’s met thousands and thousands of people, and what he said very clearly is that he should’ve given her more time.”
- Includes reporting by Emma Hickey
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say