Northern Ireland may continue to lack a devolved government at Stormont, but local councils have continued to function as normal. Ahead of the local government elections on 2nd May, Northern Slant wants to give our readers the opportunity to (virtually) meet candidates from across the political spectrum. The one thing they have in common is that none of them have been elected before. In today’s interview Dean Farquhar speaks to Áine Groogan, the Green Party’s candidate to represent Botanic on Belfast City Council.

 

What did you do before going into politics?

I worked in the Irish Embassy in Latvia for a while. I was an EU Presidency Assistant at the time Latvia had the Presidency of the EU. I also spent some time working as a legal analyst for a law firm in Belfast for about a year and a half. I then started to work for Clare Bailey as a constituency office worker.

 

What was it that attracted you to politics?

I guess I was always attracted to politics. I had always been very political. From a young age I was always politically aware, but I never quite found my political home growing up. Then when I was at college I became very involved with the reproductive rights movement. When at Trinity College I was involved with the campaign to make the union a pro-choice union. I have also been involved with the Irish Feminist Network and the equality budgeting campaign. When I moved back to Belfast, I got involved in the pro-choice movement. I would say I cut my teeth in feminist activism.

I have always wanted to be involved because I have always cared and felt that we should have a better future here. We know there is so much we need to change. I think it was always just a natural progression for me. Going into politics felt like a natural progression for me because I felt like I could do something and change something.

 

Why was it you found your political home in the Green Party?

Like I said, it took me quite some time to find my political home. I couldn’t really find a party that appealed to me until I was at a student’s women’s conference where the wonderful Clare Bailey was giving a keynote speech, and she really opened my eyes not just to the Green Party, but the idea that there could be a future in Northern Ireland politics.

There was someone who was speaking my language, someone that had experiences that I could actually relate to and who actually had a vision for changing things. So, whenever I came back to Belfast and was looking to get involved in politics, for me, the only option was the Greens. They were the only ones that were speaking out on issues that mattered to me. Issues like access to abortion, LGBT rights, social welfare and obviously the environment. They were the only ones that were speaking any sort of sense.

 

What are the most important issues affecting the people of Belfast that you would hope to address?  

A big issue for our party at the moment is clean air for Belfast. We know Belfast is a congested city. The recent INRIX study showed that we were second for most congestion behind London, which is really quite shocking given the size and population of Belfast. There is also a bigger cost to that than just the annoyance and the time and money lost, there are health impacts. We have carried out a series of tests on air quality earlier this year throughout Belfast and North Down, across around 60 or 70 sites, and the results are really quite shocking. We have a considerable number of breaches of the legal limit for nitrogen dioxide, which is the most common pollutant from congestion. There are severe health impacts of that. We know that there are over 500 air pollution related deaths a year in Northern Ireland. It’s a very serious issue and we don’t believe it has been taken seriously enough here.

Belfast City Council has a role in monitoring air quality throughout this city and a consequential role of ensuring the air is safe and breathable. A big point for us would be ensuring clean air in Belfast. There will be a lot of agencies that will be involved in achieving that, and the council is just one, but the council can be a very loud voice for the cause.

We also know that the IPCC report has said that we have less than 12 years to prevent global warming going beyond a point of no return. We all know that environmental issues are incredibly important, but they are still being treated as side issues. What I am saying, and what my vision would be going into Belfast City Council is that we need to be mainstreaming our response to climate change. Every single decision that we make needs to be future-proofed for climate. We need to stop making short-term decisions and we need to be looking to the future, making sure that everything we are doing, everything we pass through planning, every grant that is given out, is future-proofed. It’s logical, strategic and it’s very much common sense.

 

When talking about what attracted you to the Green Party you mentioned the party’s stance on issues around access to abortion, LGBT rights and social welfare, would you like to talk about those issues?

Although they are not issues that the council can have a direct impact on, that is not to say that it is not important for political representatives to reflect the views of constituents on those issues and to assist them.

Having pro-choice and pro-LGBT voices on the council is important for representation. The Green Party is a very proud pro-choice party. We support decriminalisation and Clare Bailey has been doing incredible stuff throughout her life, not just as an elected MLA, to move that campaign forward. We have also seen issues in other councils around the flying of the rainbow flag and things like that. It is incredibly important that people actually see politicians that represent them, because we know that the politicians are way behind the people on this, hence why our laws are so outdated.

I also have many concerns around welfare reform. I have dealt with many people in my work as a constituency worker that are suffering because of decisions made through PIP. We also haven’t even begun to see how Universal Credit is going to affect people. We know that ending mitigations for welfare means we are going to we drop off a cliff edge in March 2020 and we have no Assembly to extend them. I’m actually pretty terrified about how that is going to affect people. I have seen people every day that have seen their life destroyed by this. A large part of your work as a political representative is assisting people with issues that you might not necessarily be able to pass a law or a motion on. You just have to try to do your best to help them out and ensure that services and support services are adequately available and supported throughout the city.

 

What message would you give those thinking about not voting in the upcoming election?

Please, please go out and use your vote. I know that I have met people with a lot of anger and a lot of apathy on the doors at the general situation right now in politics. The fact that we have had no Assembly now for well over two years. The absolute chaos that is Brexit. People are absolutely fed up with politics and they are quite pessimistic about it, and I completely understand why. I can be as well, I can be very frustrated with everything that is going on, but please go out and use your vote because it is the only tool that you have to make sure that politicians are held accountable for their actions.

Your vote can matter – and it does matter. We have seen in South Belfast how your vote can change things. Nobody thought back in 2016 that Clare Bailey would take the seat for South Belfast. When the seats were reduced to 5 in the 2017 election, we were written off again, but the Green voters came out and they elected a Green Party MLA for the area. It just shows that your vote can count. You can start changing things. The more people that go out and vote with their hearts at the polls for something, the more we can make a difference and change things.

It can feel incredibly frustrating, but please go out and vote because if you stay at home those parties that are holding things up here win because they will continue to hold the balance of power here.

 

Voting will be open on Thursday 2nd May between 7am and 10pm. You can find the full list of candidates standing in each council area on the Electoral Office website here. No matter your persuasion, we encourage you to weigh up the options and head to the voting booth on 2nd May. Make your voice heard.

Check out the rest of our #MeetTheCandidate series here, featuring interviews with candidates standing for the UUP, the SDLP and Alliance. We also approached candidates standing for the DUP and Sinn Féin, but they did not take up our invitation to participate.