The West's referendum 'Frankenstein issues' - turf cutting and septic tanks

You could see it written all over the face of Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore last week when he rose to speak in the Dáil and moved with all the caution of a man walking on eggshells – he knew the Government was facing into the Frankenstein of modern Irish politics.

Every now and again this creature gets up and clumps about the place, causes all kinds of political headaches, brings independent names such as those of Declan Ganley and Dana Rosemary Scallon into the frame and then clumps away again.

In the case of Gilmore, he sounded like the man writing the first script in the referendum campaign on whether new powers can be ceded, or whether we can bring our economy closer to that of Europe, changing the rules of the single currency, and making this whole new package for Europe and the euro, work.

The key issues will be hard enough to sort out when it comes to referendum time but the campaign is also sure to be a ragbag collection of issues and ‘problems with Europe’ and the way they are perceived throughout the country.

The campaign itself will unleash the likes of Ganley and Dana, but can’t you just see what will happen when the discussion inevitably moves to issues like ‘the septic tank question’ in the West.

Europe has said we must register septic tanks, there must be a system of inspection and of maintenance and for the thousands of septic tank owners throughout the West this is one of the issues which won’t go away during the referendum campaign.

Indeed it will be interesting to see how Fianna Fáil and all the major political parties, will take a stance on this issue given that already septic protest meetings have been held in areas all around the West with families fearing they will face bills for thousands of euro – all at the behest of a Europe which is insisting that we must protect water quality and the environment.

Meantime, bubbling away in the background are issues such as the cutting of turf in certain bogs in the West. Farm families have been leading this battle, making the point that they have been cutting turf for generations and have not had any restrictions – though in the background they knew the day was coming when Europe would implement the law in relation to turf cutting for which the farm families had got a derogation for a number of years.

It will be a brave TD who will stand up in Galway East and defend Europe – and I don't care whether that is Michael Kitt (FF), Paul Connaughton Jnr, Ciarán Cannon (FG) or Colm Keaveney (Labour). Of course, this campaign is not about turf cutting in Galway East or 17,000 septic tanks in Co Galway, but the campaign will inevitably be about European sovereignty and this must give rise to the ‘Frankenstein factor’.

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.