{"id":19369,"date":"2024-11-28T02:08:32","date_gmt":"2024-11-28T02:08:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/?p=19369"},"modified":"2024-11-28T02:08:32","modified_gmt":"2024-11-28T02:08:32","slug":"voters-air-frustrations-ahead-of-irish-general-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/?p=19369","title":{"rendered":"Voters air frustrations ahead of Irish general election"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"BBCBBC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Emma is one of many voters in the Republic of Ireland who will be heading to the polls on Friday<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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In what is one of Europe’s best performing economies, mum-of-four Emma says she lies awake at night worrying if her children will get the medical care they need.<\/p>\n

She is one of many in the Republic of Ireland who say they are not feeling the benefits of the country’s considerably healthy bank balance.<\/p>\n

As polls in the country\u2019s general election prepare to open on Friday, there are lots of voters who say they feel \u201cfrustrated\u201d and \u201cgrumpy\u201d.<\/p>\n

Pressures around housing, immigration and public services have dominated the campaign.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

‘I hear we are one of the richest countries in the world’<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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Two of Emma\u2019s children have complex medical needs and have spent years on \u201cendless waiting lists\u201d, she says.<\/p>\n

Her 16-year-old daughter waited so long to see a rheumatologist she \u201caged out\u201d of child services, she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hear we are one of the richest countries in the world and we have never been richer, but I don’t see it,” she tells BBC News NI.<\/p>\n

“I hear it but I don’t see it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Emma also cares for her two elderly parents and says her mum is forced to regularly drive a 10-hour round trip to see an eye specialist.<\/p>\n

Emma lives in County Donegal, in the north-west of Ireland. <\/p>\n

It is one of the furthest points from the heart of government in Dublin.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"An<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

County Donegal is known a key tourist stop for those travelling on the Wild Atlantic Way<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Thirty miles away in Bunbeg, on the county’s west coast, local journalist \u00c1ine N\u00ed Bhreisle\u00e1in confirms Emma is not alone in how she feels.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re being told that things are better in Ireland, but people can see the cost of living is rising and rising,” she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cHousing is very difficult to get. Health services, we\u2019re being told, are having money pumped into them, but people can’t access the health services they need.”<\/p>\n

And \u201cpeople often vote first with their pocket\u201d, she warns.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"\u00c1ine<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Donegal voters will have many issues on their mind during Friday’s election, \u00c1ine N\u00ed Bhreisle\u00e1in says<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

The ‘forgotten’ county<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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With its mountains and coastline, Donegal is a beautiful place to live in but its scale as a political constituency makes it a \u201ccanvasser’s nightmare\u201d, says \u00c1ine.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople maybe feel they’ve been separated and left on their own and forgotten here in Donegal,” she adds.<\/p>\n

There are a number of issues why this may be, but \u00c1ine points to infrastructure, health services, expenditure and, pointedly, the issue surrounding defective concrete blocks.<\/p>\n

Thousands of homes built with blocks containing high levels of the mineral Mica are crumbling across the county<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The mineral absorbs water, causing walls to crack and crumble.<\/p>\n

In November 2021, the Irish government introduced what it said was a significant number of improvements to a previous scheme for mica homeowners.<\/p>\n

The scheme, which is capped at \u20ac420,000 (\u00a3357,500), is for homeowners in counties Donegal, Mayo, Clare and Limerick – where the blocks are most present.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"A<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Defective Mica bricks have caused houses to be demolished across Donegal and further afield<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Housing is also a major problem in the Republic, with prices soaring and about 58,000 on the social housing waiting list<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A major report from July also suggests that at least 35,000 new homes need to be built every year<\/a> to keep up with demand.<\/p>\n

However, Ireland’s population continues to rise.<\/p>\n

Last year around 150,000 immigrants arrived \u2013 the highest number for 17 years<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Most were from outside the UK.<\/p>\n

County Donegal hosts the largest proportion, per capita, of asylum seekers – known in Ireland as International Protection Applicants (IPAs).<\/p>\n

It is claimed one in every 100 people in the county is now an IPA.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe concern people have about immigration in Donegal is equality,” local radio host Greg Hughes says.<\/p>\n

“They feel people coming to the country, or people being offered refuge, are given priority.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Greg<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Greg Hughes presents a daily radio programme in Letterkenny<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Greg hosts a live daily local phone-in programme on Highland Radio.<\/p>\n

At his studios in Letterkenny, he says perhaps voters are \u201cfeeling grumpy or perhaps disconnected\u201d because not all the problems in Ireland are new.<\/p>\n

He suggests that people also have not seen meaningful moves to address them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not saying the government isn’t trying or they aren’t doing their best but the reality is you say to someone in Donegal that this current country is incredibly rich, they’ll say, ‘Well, when’s this going to trickle down into my pocket?’\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Wealth gap<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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While chatting to Margarite in Letterkenny Shopping Centre, she says that she feels she is being “gaslighted” – the act or practice of grossly misleading someone, especially for one’s own advantage<\/a> – by politicians.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there’s a gap between the wealth in the country and the people on the ground,\u201d she tells the BBC.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think people might be grumpy about the fact they’re constantly being told almost they feel like they’re being gaslit that we’re a rich country with all these resources.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut when it comes down to things in rural areas, public transport, investment in roads, investment in local hospitals and the rate of pay in areas such as Donegal, we don’t feel that wealth.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I think that causes an awful lot of frustration.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Irish general election: What you need to know about the 2024 vote<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Source: <\/em> www.bbc.com\u2026<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BBC Emma is one of many voters in the Republic of Ireland who will be heading to the polls on Friday In what is one of Europe’s best performing economies, mum-of-four Emma says she lies awake at night worrying if her children will get the medical care they need. She is one of many in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19369\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}