To help you make an informed choice at the polling station on November 29th, 92.5 Phoenix FM will be speaking to many of the candidates from Dublin West to hear what their priorities are for the next Dáil. This series is adapted from our ‘General Election 2024’ podcast series as broadcasted on D15 Today, where you will find full-length interviews with the candidates.
Cllr Ellen Troy was born in Edinburgh to Irish parents and has lived in Castleknock for the past forty years. She is heavily involved in her local community which likely helped her election as a councillor for Aontú in Castleknock in June.
We have highlighted some of the main points raised in the interview.
On housing
It is no secret that housing is the biggest issue facing the majority of voters going into this election, and Cllr Troy has heard this many times on the doors. “It’s incredible. The amount of people that open the door and their children are so well educated, and yet they’re gone to Canada, gone to Australia, they’ve emigrated […] They can’t see any hope of being able to afford a home of their own.”
One of Aontú’s policies on housing is to incentivise Irish people working in construction abroad back home, but current estimates say that the shortfall here is in the region of 80,000. Cllr Troy admits that their policy likely wouldn’t bring home these sort of numbers, but “we could certainly do a lot with those who are here to maybe change careers, make it an exciting career change for people. There’s so many people who would take up that role, but there seems to be no forward planning for the government to even think of these things.”
Cllr Troy also points to issues outside of workers: “We need to reform the speed [of the] planning permission process […] I don’t know how the current government thought that it was okay not to build for so many years, and then how suddenly we would be able to catch up.”
On forming a government
Parties have red lines on who they hope to form a government with, and voters hope their preferred party won’t go into coalition with someone whose policies they are opposed to. Where does Aontú stand on forming a government? Cllr Troy says the party “wouldn’t be in favour” of joining a government alongside Fine Gael, but is open to doing so with Fianna Fáil despite admitting that party is also responsible for the ongoing housing and health crises.
It is not known if Sinn Féin is an option for the party; Peadar Tóibín TD first formed Aontú in the wake of the abortion referendum which all major parties, including his former Sinn Féin, advocated a Yes vote for. Despite this, Cllr Troy at least appears to be conceding that the people have spoken and they do not share the party’s concerns: “We’ve had the referendum and we live in a democracy […] It comes up very little on the door.”
Aontú also has the distinction of being the only elected party not to advocate for Yes votes for March’s referendums which were defeated with near-record numbers by the electorate. Cllr Troy says this shows the party is in tune with the public’s views: “We have a fantastic leader […] who was able to call out the referendum and know what the people are thinking.”
She also suggested the party received “73,000 votes” in the local elections which “surpassed Labour, the Social Democrats and People Before Profit”. However, the actual figure was 39,461 which puts them behind the former two parties at almost 60,000 and 24,000 votes respectively. Cllr Troy is right to say that they received more votes than People Before Profit, but the party running alongside Solidarity elected 13 councillors from 53 candidates in comparison to Aontú’s 8 councillors from 66 candidates. What is notable is that two of these 8 were elected here in Dublin 15: it is plausible to suggest that Cllr Troy and Ongar councillor Gerard Sheehan’s community involvement helped them outperform candidates nationally.
On health
The health service is another key issue for voters, and parties across the political spectrum are making this a major element in their election manifestos. Cllr Troy is again advocating for incentivisation to bring health workers home: “So many GPs are [emigrating] looking for a better life because the Irish GPs [are] under tremendous pressure with enormous waiting lists and enormous volumes of patients on their books.”
The concurrent housing crisis isn’t making the situation any easier per Cllr Troy. “If two newly qualified doctors can’t buy a home, I mean, it’s just quite incredible that we’ve got to this stage. […] We probably need maybe a 20-year plan for housing, going forward in the next government that’s formed.” Her own family can attest to how difficult the situation is: “The HSE recruitment freeze only recently ended […] I have two nurses within my children, and they tell me what’s going on. And the nursing staff are under such tremendous pressure.” She says Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have held a duopuly on government “since the foundation of the state” and “other countries are able to manage their systems a lot better than us.”
Another key policy of Cllr Troy’s is the “creation of a parallel mental health service […] accessible for all ages, […] the CAMHS, the services for parents and children with special needs.” However, she says departments don’t link in with each other and that she hears about this regularly on the doors.
“Children, non-verbal, not got a school place, and then they might attend a psychologist, a child psychologist, but the child psychologist isn’t talking to the GP, isn’t talking to the education system. So there’s all these different waiting lists, and they aren’t working together as a team. That all has to be done in parallel.
Regional hospitals have been especially suffering under the current health service crisis. Cllr Troy says we “can’t be expected to have the excellence of our scientists and our top medical people in each hospital around the country […] But regional hospitals are so important to keep up to a very high standard, keep them open, so that we don’t have overcrowding in our main hospitals in the city.”
Underfunding is a chronic issue in health, and Cllr Troy “was shocked because I’m on the task force, the drug and alcohol task force, and I was shocked at the lack of funding. […] Obviously, prevention, especially on something that’s addictive, you need to prevent it happening to begin with. […] A child coming from a home of addicts is obviously much more likely to become one. So, if we could have early intervention with a child that you can spot like that, and then have […] special teachers or lecturers to visit national schools […] very often, in particular areas that need it, to encourage the youngsters, your life can be like this, or your life can be like that, and show them straight away,”
On crime
Law and order is another issue on voters’ mind, and Cllr Troy agrees that “crime and antisocial behavior is out of control”: “People fear for their life going into the city centre. I’ve heard so many people saying that they just wouldn’t go in.” Garda figures have fallen year-on-year but so has the actual demand and appetite for joining the Gardaí; Cllr Troy suggests making pay and conditions better and having “more Gardaí on the beat […] We used to see them on bikes […] You’d say good morning to a Garda every now and again. […] Now, we don’t see them. But law and order has gone out of control.”
Cllr Troy admits there is a societal issue as well: “The behaviour of people and the manners of people on the road has kind of got out of hand. […] And yet we’ve got full employment, we’ve got a great country, great people, and generally, the Irish, as they are very law-abiding people in general […] So we just need a little bit of guidance on that. And our youngsters thinking they can do what they like, just because there’s nobody around to, no guard on a bike or, you know, knocking around to correct them or put manners on them. You know, most people would respect the gardaí, and that’s a very good thing. But every year that we’ve had Fine Gael in power, the number of guards has fallen.”
You can listen to our full interview with Cllr Ellen Troy on our ‘General Election 2024’ podcast series. Stay tuned to 92.5 Phoenix FM for all the latest news and updates from the campaign trail.
