Do Elected Representatives Listen To What People Are Saying

We all know that politicians and would be politicians don’t listen to the people they look to for votes. More correctly I should say that most do not listen to what is said to them by those that they represent, or those that they hope to represent. It seems to me anyway that many of our politicians or would be politicians are afraid to upset the decision makers upstairs that they might have to go to with representations that are made to them in case they are refused what they hope to see happen if they were to speak out against particular issues.

I listened with interest to Déise Today on WLR.fm this morning which came from its studio in Dungarvan. When I heard that there was going to be candidates in the upcoming local elections in the Dungarvan area coming on I texted a question to the shows presenter Damien Tiernan to put to the candidates which I am glad to say Damien did.

The question was a very simple one, what they think of what disabled people are saying of late on social media about Dungarvan’s Grattan Square.

Not surprisingly five of the six that were on the show in two different sections did not seem to know what was been said. Maybe they genuinely did not know which I would be surprised to hear, or they are misunderstanding what is been said which could easily happen, or they are choosing not to listen which I would hope is not the case because the votes of disabled people and relatives and friends of disabled people could well be the difference between someone getting elected and not getting elected.

Those that read what appears on my social media pages with some time and who take it in will know only too well what the problem is. Dungarvan’s Grattan Square while looking well since it got its much needed makeover looks well, it is not safe.

The surface chosen by those responsible for giving the area its makeover is far from ideal. If you are on crutches like I am you will notice that there is a glaze on the bricks used to create the surface which when wet or when it freezes makes it near impossible to walk on.

For those that don’t know, I cannot walk. Most people that use crutches do so as a support after maybe a knee or hip operation until it is back to what it should be. It is also used as a support for those waiting on an operation or maybe by someone recovering from a leg brake or some other short term injury.

But for me, my crutches are my legs. To walk I put them about two feet in front of me, press hard down on them and lift myself using upper bodied strength to lift myself in front of my crutches and repeat this motion for my next step.

As you can imagine when you have yourself lifted off the ground you don’t want to have a surface with a shine on it, one that is wet or one that is covered in frost or snow. The latter two I know no human has control over but we have full control over the first one. Another thing that I and people like me have to deal with when out and about is colourless pieces of plastic, like those that you find around a packet of cigarettes which smokers for some reason favour throwing on the ground when opening a packet. To leave a crutch on these is very dangerous as the rubber on the end of the crutch will slip on it causing the person to fall.

This morning when Damien Tiernan put my question to the six candidates in the election next week, they preferred to make mention of the studs on the ground, the shared spaces, the fried eggs at the bottom of Mary Street, the amount of pedestrian crossings, the speed which drivers drive at through the square, all of which I have not seen one disabled person make mention of.

To his credit Labour Candidate Tomás Phelan did make mention of some of what I and others are making and Tomás last week in the Dungarvan papers also referenced what people are saying.

Independent candidate Joe O’Riordan on his Facebook page also seems to understand what is been said not just by disabled people but also the elderly about the square. Joe for those that have not seen it have put a video up on his Facebook page showed an elderly woman with a walker passing over the water channels that are dotted around the Square which are not very safe, but are essential in ways to take away the water off the area, but there was other ways to do this simply putting a slope away from the fronts of the shops to a gully that could have been located under where the footpaths meet where the cars are stopped from going onto the footpaths.

As a disabled person I am not interested in what ways cars are allowed to park in Grattan Square provided there are adequate parking spaces for disabled people to park. I am not interested in how safe or unsafe the fried egg is. I am not interested in how many pedestrian areas there is to cross the square in provided that they are easily identified which they are not right now with the exception of one of them.

I am however interested in the surface of Grattan Square and how unsafe it is. I know it would cost a great deal of money to do, but I am interested in seeing the present footpaths in and around Grattan Square rooted up and replaced by a much safer surface. They don’t even have to be rooted up. They can be covered over with a safer surface, something with a bit of grip in.

Many of those who favour Dungarvan’s Grattan Square as it is are fit and able bodied people. But they one day will be old. They might one day suffer a stroke, a brain haemorrhage or be in an accident that might result in them been left having to use crutches or a wheelchair to get out and about and it is then and only then that some of those responsible for the square in its present state will find out how dangerous it is.

And it is not just those that are disabled or elderly that are saying that Grattan Square is dangerous. I have heard those that push prams or buggies say how difficult it is for them to do so since the square got its makeover. I have heard those that pushed loved ones in wheelchairs say how difficult it is to do so. I have heard women who walk in heels say how difficult it is, especially if they come out of a pub after a number of drinks, and it need not be too many they tell me.

I am once more asking all those standing for election to Waterford City and County Council to put party politics to one side and work between them to make Grattan Square a safer place for all and not just the chosen few.

I know that some candidates will say ‘Grattan Square is not in my area so it does not affect me” but it does. While they might represent people from Tallow, Lismore, Cappoquin, Touraneena etc in the Lismore area, Portlaw, Kilmeaden, Kilmacthomas or Stradbally in the Portlaw/Kilmacthomas area, or Tramore, Ferrybank, Ballybricken, Passage East, Dunmore East or the Dunmore Road in the different areas around the City electorate areas, but I have met and spoken with people from these areas and other areas who visit Dungarvan on a regular basis, and some of those that visit Dungarvan from areas outside the Dungarvan Electorate areas are disabled and elderly and they are affected by the state of Grattan Square, and so wherever our new councillors are from because people move around the county and visit Dungarvan and indeed Waterford City to name but just two areas, they should be taking an interest in the state of Grattan Square in Dungarvan.

For those that might not have heard the show the five candidates that choose for whatever reason not to comment on the surface of Grattan Square were the Sinn Fein candidates Siobhan Whelan and Conor McGuinness, two of Fine Gael’s candidates Pat Nugent and Ian Noctor and one of Fianna Fail’s Candidates – Ann Marie Rossiter.