RADIO REVIEW:THE GOVERNMENT suffered another embarrassing defeat in a key vote last week. Unlike the cock-up with absent TDs that recently saw them bested at an Oireachtas finance committee, this loss was a more ominous portent for the administration. Admittedly, an impromptu public poll about the household charge on The Ray D'Arcy Show (Today FM, weekdays) is beyond the realm of even the most rigorous of Government whips, but the result of Wednesday's text vote was telling nonetheless.
Seeking to gauge “the feeling on the ground” about the charge, D’Arcy asked his listeners if they intended to pony up. When the 6,500-odd replies were broken down, the answer was clear. About 85 per cent of respondents said they would not pay, a percentage that tallied closely with the proportion who have not yet registered for the charge.
It was a professionally astute act on the part of D’Arcy, who rarely misses an opportunity to buff his aw-shucks, ordinary-Joe, man-of-the-people persona, but it also chimed with the public mood.
That said, the poll was hardly conducted in a dispassionate setting. D’Arcy had earlier spoken to Dr Orla Franklin of Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital in Crumlin, who was seeking funds for new oncology and cardiology units. Her appearance came on foot of a suggestion by one of the show’s listeners, Sandra, that the €100 due on the household charge would be better used as a donation to the hospital. In D’Arcy’s hands, this idea had become a cause celebre, if not an actual campaign: encouraging illegal acts is not best practice for broadcasters, no matter how sensationalist their instincts.
Merely by mooting a choice between the payment of an unpopular tax and the essential upgrading of a hospital for sick children, D’Arcy had probably done enough to swing the vote, but the interview with Franklin sealed the deal. With construction of a new national children’s hospital delayed, the doctor said that “we can’t look these kids in the eye any longer and tell them their time will come five, seven or 10 years down the line, because their time is now”.
Franklin carefully avoided any explicit link between her appeal and the household charge, but her calm, committed tone couldn’t suppress her anger. “It’s a terrible indictment of the health service that I’m here with my little begging bowl, looking for something that should be provided by the national purse.”
After hearing such testimony, it was a wonder that more listeners didn’t come out against the tax. “Would I be breaking the law if I suggested to those people who have already decided [not to pay] that they redirect the money to Crumlin?” wondered D’Arcy. No, he answered himself, he would not, though his copresenters mumbled doubtfully.
Connecting the two issues was a contrived, even spurious gesture by D’Arcy. But it was also the action of a confident presenter with finely tuned populist antennae. Politicians forever spout on about there being only one poll that counts, but the Government might heed D’Arcy’s vote.
Other shows were swamped with similar sentiments, with Liveline (RTÉ Radio 1, weekdays) unsurprisingly to the fore. “Yesterday we got a whole deluge of calls on the household charge, and we could not find one person in favour of it,” Joe Duffy remarked on Thursday. By then the publication of the Mahon report meant the agenda had moved on. “We can’t do the household charge every day,” said Duffy, sounding somewhat relieved.
The Mahon tribunal was, of course, a squally enough subject. Though the bulk of callers were scornful of Bertie Ahern, others took a more charitable view. Damien Cassidy, former chairman of the Kilmainham Gaol trust, acknowledged that the report didn’t look good for the former taoiseach, but he was keen to stress the positives, too, such as his contribution to the peace process, his religious faith and his generosity. “Bertie gave us 50,000 to expand that museum,” Cassidy said. “Well, it was taxpayers’ money,” Duffy pointed out.
Ultimately, the presenter was more concerned with the report’s description of the “rampant public corruption” in political life. “The Mahon tribunal has said, and I’m paraphrasing, that Ireland is a kip,” he fulminated, clearly tiring of being an honest broker on what he called a dispiriting subject. Oddly, Duffy’s editorialising was less disheartening than usual.
Perhaps the biggest outpouring of indignation emanated from the normally mild-mannered Matt Cooper, on The Last Word (Today FM, weekdays). Cooper’s disdain for Ahern was obvious, right down to his scornful description of the former taoiseach “shuffling money into his safe in St Luke’s”. When the Fianna Fáil TD Dara Calleary appeared to say it was a “very damning day for the party”, the presenter heaped scorn on this contrition, noting that Ahern had been given “ticker tape parades” when he stepped down from office. “Were you incapable of seeing the difference between right and wrong until you saw a final report?” he asked sarcastically.
In fairness, Cooper was nonpartisan in his outrage. Listening to the Fine Gael TD Paschal Donohoe scoring points, Cooper noted tersely that, no matter who was in office, “no one is ever held responsible for their actions in this country, are they?” It won’t be for lack of trying by enraged radio hosts.
radioreview@irishtimes.com
Radio moment of the week
A vox pop on Wednesday’s Moncrieff (Newstalk, weekdays) must have had the nation’s history teachers in despair, as nobody milling outside the GPO on St Patrick’s Day was able to name all the signatories of the 1916 Proclamation.
One man’s answer, in particular, stood out: “Daniel O’Connell, he’d be one.”
