Paddy Diver calls for 'feet on the street' to keep pressure on the Government

Paddy Diver, the Inishowen man who lit the blue touch paper of the 100% Redress campaign, has appealed for people to attend Friday’s rally in Dublin.

Mr Diver said if the Government thinks the 100% Redress campaign is losing momentum, it will delay its decision indefinitely.

“The crowd we bring to O'Connell Bridge on Friday will definitely influence Government thinking around the redress issue. Donegal and Mayo will be in Dublin and we need all of the support we can get,” the Carndonagh man told Donegal Live.

“After all of the fighting we have done over the last few months, if we want to push the Government over the line now, on the redress issue, we need thousands of feet on the street in Dublin. There is no point of doing all of that hard work for months if we don't turn up to Dublin now. We have to turn up in numbers. If only small numbers turn up, it is going to look as if the momentum is slowing and support for 100% Redress is declining. October 8, has never been more important. It is crucial.

“The eyes of the world will be on us. We have to turn up in massive numbers. We are sending out the biggest message that ever has been sent out. Now is your time.

“Anyone sitting in the house thinking, 'Sure a good crowd went down the last time, they'll not miss me this time', is wrong. That is not a good way of thinking. Everyone needs to bring an extra person along. Imagine if we doubled the numbers on Friday, compared to June 15, that would completely send shock-waves through Europe.”

He also described the draft report from the working group on the Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme as “totally pathetic”.

“The final defective blocks working group position of the Donegal families on the working group was top class. However, the Government has questioned the calculator and has questioned the caps but it has come up with no figures, nothing.

“It is as if the civil servants have been sleeping this last few months. They took the existing scheme and muddled it up because they did not want to admit they had made a mess of it. They did not want to admit it is not fit for purpose.

“After four months, Paul Benson [principal officer at the Department of Housing] is saying he needs to get advice on the calculator. What has the man been doing when he is now looking for advice on the calculator. He should know this off by heart at this stage.

“Every time we came to them with figures, they turned around and dismissed, dismissed, dismissed. We knew our figures were correct according to the calculator and we stuck to our guns. The Government, on the other hand, threw out figures to scaremonger people. It quoted €3.5 million to turn the people against us. We need to turn the people for us. We need to turn up in massive numbers in Dublin on Friday.”

The Mica Action Group (MAG) has also requested all of Donegal's Oireachtas members and county councillors to attend the redress rally in Dublin, for mica and pyrite affected families.

The invitation said it would be a peaceful and dignified protest, just like the one in June.

It added: “If you weren't there the last time, we really need you to be among us this time.

“This is the most significant grassroots movement to emerge from rural Ireland since the Land League, and we want every part of Ireland to feel and be part of it. With the vast majority of TDs and senators inside and outside of government supporting our demands for 100% Redress, No Less, this is a moment of reckoning for how governance is actually done now and into the future of this island.

“The only obstacle in our way are the senior department officials / civil servants who for too long have thumbed their noses at, laughed at and spoken down to the citizens and even the councillors, MLAs, TDs, MPs and Senators we elect. This 'Yes, minister' culture is a residual effect of how this country was run via direct rule, Lord Lieutenants and resident magistrates for hundreds of years before our imperfect independence, you can seer from their pitches to the media that they are well used to pitting us against each other as they apply the divide and conquer strategies that have been used for centuries, to try and control and frustrate progress around issues of important social significance. This is something that we are going to have to stand up to and change for good. They are working for us, and for our elected representatives, not the other way around. There is no point in changing governments, or even constitutional arrangements, if the way in which governance is done, does not also change itself.

“This campaign has become much more than a few thousand defective homes built during the Celtic Tiger along the Atlantic seaboard. The success of this campaign will have a significant bearing on the success of future movements and that is why we need to stick together and unite around the Three Pillars of the Mica Action Group's demands as men, women and children of this land, from all backgrounds, classes and creeds.

“Siptu, Fórsa and Unite unions and their branches have come out in support of 100% Redress, we know that a majority of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Green Party members also all support 100% Redress, as well as the opposition. Our neighbours across the border, the DUP, have even come out in support of 100% Redress, which is really appreciated, as have the leaders of the Catholic, Church of Ireland and Presbyterian Churches. This is about much more than buildings now, this is about principle, this is about regional equality, this is about the mental health, the well-being and the future of our communities.

“Though this crisis has its epicentre in rural Ireland, this has a knock-on effect in urban Ireland in terms of demand for and therefore prices for homes to rent and buy in the capital and other cities. We must never allow the people of any part of this island to be treated like Second Class citizens again.

“We need to think with both hemispheres of our Irish brains and remember that Irish America, our friends in the UK, Europe and across the world are watching on and wishing us well, the world is in our corner as we duke it out with the Civil Servants in the final rounds of this long fight.
MAG pointed out in the invite that US campaigner Erin Brockovich has started following the campaign.

"We are all Erin Brockovichs and Paddy Divers now, and we must stand together as we claim final victory for the wee man and woman, for the old age pensioners and their grandchildren who need us to stand strong and refuse to be distracted or divided. 100% Redress, No Less, we must achieve this victory now, so that no part of this island is ever left behind in the future because this mica crisis could be coming to any part of Ireland soon, as the chickens of Galway tent corruption come home to roost.

“100% Redress is the least these people should receive, a failure to grant the full 100% Redress this time should lead for campaigns in the future for inhabitants of Donegal and other parts of the West and Border Regions to pay zero income tax until there is parity between all regions in terms of infrastructure and other investment, something we would expect candidates to support in the future. Repeating this line about Donegal people having larger than average houses will only serve to alienate voters further, to the detriment of government parties, please make sure that department officials and press offices understand this. The VAT for those houses was paid as it should be, people need to receive the Goods and Services they paid for.

“People are not intimidated by the B word any more (Billion), not since we bailed out the banks as we did,” said the Mica Action Group invitation.