The decision of former minister for justice Alan Shatter to re-enter the political ring has raised some eyebrows, not least in the constituency of Dublin Rathdown.
This is where the former Fine Gael TD is hoping to regain a seat in the upcoming general election on Friday, November 29th, though this time as an Independent.
“You must be getting back into it because you’re mad,” Dundrum resident Jean Carr jokes with Shatter (73) during a canvass of the area earlier this week.
Shatter, a TD for 30 years until he lost his seat in the 2016 election, points to his wife, Carol, who is standing beside him.
“She thinks I’m mad too,” he says. “Some of my friends think I’m nuts.”
Shatter, who also served as minister for defence, resigned from Cabinet in 2014 after then taoiseach Enda Kenny told him privately he could no longer express confidence in him following a review into allegations made by Garda whistleblower Sgt Maurice McCabe about police misconduct.
Shatter was vindicated two years later in the O’Higgins Commission but ceased to be a member of Fine Gael in 2018. He says he does not see himself rejoining Fine Gael and claims there has been “a loss of moral compass” within the party.
“There’s an obsessive need to be permanently in the headlines on every issue that appears,” he says.
“This started with Leo [Varadkar]. Simon [Harris] is addicted to soundbites, and you have what I would describe as soundbites with an added bit of dramatic rhetorical decoration. Politics and people’s lives are more serious than that.”
Despite this, Shatter stresses to Carr and other locals he wants to “keep Sinn Féin out of the constituency” and has centred his campaign on abolishing inheritance tax, reforming the childcare system and securing more resources for ambulance services.
Dublin Rathdown has moved from a three to a four-seater where outgoing TDs Catherine Martin, the Green Party’s former deputy leader and Minister for Tourism and Culture, and Fine Gael’s Minister of State at the Department of Finance Neale Richmond are running. Fine Gael’s former junior minister Josepha Madigan is retiring.
Candidates also include Shay Brennan (FF), Maeve O’Connell (FG), Sinéad Gibney (SD), Shaun Tracey (SF), Michael Fleming (Ind), Siomha Ní Aonghusa (PBP), Lettie McCarthy (Lab), Elaine Dunne (FF), Liam Coughlan (Aontú) and Garrett McCafferty (Ind/National Alliance).
The expectation is the three Government parties may take three seats in the constituency which covers the south Dublin neighbourhoods of Ballinteer, Churchtown, Clonskeagh, Dundrum and Stillorgan. The fourth seat is seen as a chance for an Independent or left-leaning candidate.
On the doorsteps of Dundrum, Máire Manning (60) tells Shatter she is divorced and her biggest concern is affordable housing. She has had to move back in with her mother while she tries to find somewhere to live.
“It’s the same for a lot of my friends: we are divorced and finding it difficult to get somewhere to live,” she says.
“Right now to buy an apartment is €300,000 minimum. If you want two bedrooms, it’ll be €400,000. Ten years ago, you would have been able to buy a house with that.”
Manning says she will give Shatter her first preference and adds that it “doesn’t matter” to her that he’s running as an Independent.
“As long as he has a voice and can do something, I don’t really worry about the different parties at this stage,” she says. “Though I probably would like to keep Sinn Féin out.”
Corrinagh McLoughlin (30), who moved into the area in August, questions Shatter on the environment and public transport.
“They’re the only things I’ll be factoring in when it comes to the election,” she says. “The only people I’ve ever voted for in the past are the Greens, not that I necessarily always agreed with them, but at least they’re trying something. I’ve got to think about the next 50 years on this earth.”
Other issues raised with the former minister include health services, the Apple tax fund as well as a recent letter he wrote to The Irish Times on the Occupied Territories Bill.
Shatter, a prominent and very vocal supporter of Israel, says the conflict in Gaza hasn’t been a “major focus” on the canvass to date, but adds “people have quietly said to me that they’re upset at some of the commentary from the Irish Government on the issue”.
In terms of his chances of being re-elected, Shatter believes the final seat will come down to himself and Sinn Féin’s Shaun Tracey.
“But, who knows the dynamic of an election?” he says. “Strange things always happen in elections.”
He concedes that he’s “sort of laid back about it”.
Across the boundary lines, another former Fine Gael TD is canvassing for votes as an Independent candidate: Kate O’Connell.
The 44-year-old pharmacist announced in recent weeks that she would be running as an Independent in Dublin Bay South, despite discussions with her former party about potentially being added on the Fine Gael ticket alongside Lord Mayor of Dublin James Geoghegan.
A one-term TD, O’Connell lost her seat in the February 2020 general election. Geoghegan was subsequently put forward for Fine Gael in the constituency in the 2021 byelection.
Speaking as she walks around Rathgar village this week, O’Connell says a future return to the party is not something she’s given much thought to but that she has a “good relationship” with Taoiseach Simon Harris and has spoken with him since declaring her candidacy.
Dublin Bay South remains a four-seater constituency with sitting TDs Chris Andrews (SF), Ivana Bacik (Lab) and Jim O’Callaghan (FF) all running again in the constituency which encompasses Sandymount, Donnybrook, Ranelagh, Rathmines and Rathgar in south Dublin.
Hazel Chu is the Green Party candidate, following the decision of former leader Eamon Ryan to stand down. Other candidates include Eoin Hayes (SD), Emma Blain (FG), Nick Delehanty (Ind), Alan Healy (Aontú), Lauralee Doyle (The Irish People), Michael McGrath (Ind) and Brigid Purcell (PBP).
Local resident James Dillon opens his door at his home near Terenure Village and tells O’Connell: “You’ve stuck many needles in me” – a reference to vaccinations given in her nearby pharmacy.
Pointing to the leaflet she hands him, Dillon says: “It’s a pity you’re not on the Fine Gael ticket … it’s a big mistake for them not having you on their team.”
He tells her he’s “100 per cent behind you”.
“Most people around here are reasonably comfortable,” he says, and believes “more of the same is what we need because the country is doing very well”.
Nearby, another resident Irial Slattery, who works in the hospitality sector, brings up the VAT rate and the housing crisis as the main issues for him.
“My preference would be that every political party in the country would get a representative and sit down together and put together one coherent housing position and follow it,” he says.
The parties should forget about promises of 50,000 new houses and sit down together and agree on a new light rail system and an underground in Dublin and around other cities.
“Forget about giveaway budgets; they’re horse manure,” he says.
Ciarán Murphy, who has lived in the area for 25 years, says he is “disappointed” O’Connell was not on the Fine Gael ticket and he declares himself “currently undecided” because she’s an Independent.
“If Kate was on the ticket there for Fine Gael, there would be no question. She wouldn’t even have to talk to us; we would be voting for her,” he says.
O’Connell says it is “hard to know” what her prospects are three weeks from the election. She acknowledges there are many “strong contenders” in the constituency, traditionally a Fine Gael stronghold despite the party not having a seat in the area currently.
“My risk is coming in fifth or sixth and not dragging up because I’m Independent,” she says.
“I didn’t drag up the last time [in the 2020 general election], got no transfers and there was a very low turnout. So a focus of our campaign this time would be getting the vote out.”
She says people understand the voting system in Ireland but she is focused on reminding voters that she needs first-preference votes “to stay in the game”.
“I’m a firm believer in canvassing, meeting people, getting out and when this is all over I want to have no regrets,” she says.
“People know who I am. I have proven I can do the job. People might not like every part of the way I did my job but that’s fine; people can’t like every part of the way you do things.”
