Election Interview: Mary Roche
Mary Roche is a General Election candidate for the Social Democrats in Waterford. Photo: Hugh Dooley
After spending much of her career as an Independent, Mary Roche, a councillor for Waterford City East, and a member of the Social Democrats, has decided to contest the General Election as a party politician for the first time.
“People will know that I was Independent for about 20 years, and I think at a local level that’s no barrier to actually delivering for the people that elect you.”
She explained that the lack of a formal government in local politics allowed independents to be effective for their constituents.
This differs in national politics, she said.
“That’s why I joined a political party!” She argued that “at the next level, I do think you need to be part of a team, we have learned that. We have elected independents – and they are good – but we saw John Halligan in government, as a junior minister, going to rain hell down on the government if things weren’t delivered and they still weren’t delivered!”
Like many people in the county, Cllr Roche believes that Waterford is being left behind, describing it as “the forgotten city”.
“It’s not just a sense, it’s actually provable and verifiable,” the Social Democrat candidate said, pointing to the South East Economic Monitor reports showing the lack of government investment into the region.
“It’s not like we are shouting into the void or whining for the sake of it, we actually have less investment into infrastructure, education and health. It’s just not fair, we pay the same taxes as other people!”
Mary Roche, who is a former board member of Waterford IT before it became SETU, has pledged to work on achieving full university status as part of a promise by her party to commence the process and also to give the university autonomy and equity in funding with other universities across the country.
“Whatever designation it has been, whether that was WRTC, WIT or SETU […] the college has always operated outside of its designation. It has never let the designation limit it,” she said. “As WRTC it merited a step up from that designation to differentiate itself – when that happened it became WIT and overnight all of the other RTCs, whether they deserved it or not, were upgraded overnight by political demand.”
Cllr Roche pointed to other regional institutions receiving upgraded status purely due to political will and said, “If it was me, I would actually change the designation in the morning and have it trading as the University of Waterford or the University of the South East.”
Asked how she would achieve the balanced regional development she promises to campaign for, Cllr Roche said, “We don’t have a democracy so much as a Ministerial Kleptocracy”, and emphasised that having a government minister in place is crucial to ensuring that the region would get the investment it deserves.
“The regions should get what is rightfully theirs – that’s the way I would be looking to do it.”
The Social Democrat candidate said that the biggest concerns on the doorstep are the airport, healthcare – especially with regard to older people and disability care, and housing.
Throughout her campaign, Cllr Roche stresses the importance of getting more investment into the South East, “The balanced regional development covers the equality that Waterford needs to achieve with its peer cities.”
“We are being told in Waterford to be the regional driver, to develop incomes and attract jobs - to bake a cake, but they are not giving us the basic ingredients.
“Bake a cake! But they’re not giving us any flour – the university, not giving us any raising agent, the airport!”
