Donegal voters air frustrations ahead of Ireland’s general election

In what is one of Europe’s best performing economies, mum-of-four Emma says she lies awake at night worrying if her children will get the medical care they need.

She is one of many in the Republic of Ireland who say they are not feeling the benefits of the country’s considerably healthy bank balance.

As polls in the country’s general election prepare to open on Friday, there are lots of voters who say they feel “frustrated” and “grumpy”.

Pressures around housing, immigration and public services have dominated the campaign.

Two of Emma’s children have complex medical needs and have spent years on “endless waiting lists”, she says.

Her 16-year-old daughter waited so long to see a rheumatologist she “aged out” of child services, she says.

“I hear we are one of the richest countries in the world and we have never been richer, but I don’t see it,” she tells BBC News NI.

“I hear it but I don’t see it.”

Emma also cares for her two elderly parents and says her mum is forced to regularly drive a 10-hour round trip to see an eye specialist.

Emma lives in County Donegal, in the north-west of Ireland.

It is one of the furthest points from the heart of government in Dublin.

Thirty miles away in Bunbeg, on the county’s west coast, local journalist Áine Ní Bhreisleáin confirms Emma is not alone in how she feels.

“We’re being told that things are better in Ireland, but people can see the cost of living is rising and rising,” she says.

“Housing is very difficult to get. Health services, we’re being told, are having money pumped into them, but people can’t access the health services they need.”

And “people often vote first with their pocket”, she warns.

With its mountains and coastline, Donegal is a beautiful place to live in but its scale as a political constituency makes it a “canvasser’s nightmare”, says Áine.

“People maybe feel they’ve been separated and left on their own and forgotten here in Donegal,” she adds.

There are a number of issues why this may be, but Áine points to infrastructure, health services, expenditure and, pointedly, the issue surrounding defective concrete blocks.

Thousands of homes built with blocks containing high levels of the mineral Mica are crumbling across the county.

The mineral absorbs water, causing walls to crack and crumble.

In November 2021, the Irish government introduced what it said was a significant number of improvements to a previous scheme for mica homeowners.

The scheme, which is capped at €420,000 (£357,500), is for homeowners in counties Donegal, Mayo, Clare and Limerick – where the blocks are most present.

Housing is also a major problem in the Republic, with prices soaring and about 58,000 on the social housing waiting list.

A major report from July also suggests that at least 35,000 new homes need to be built every year to keep up with demand.

However, Ireland’s population continues to rise.

Last year around 150,000 immigrants arrived – the highest number for 17 years.

Most were from outside the UK.

County Donegal hosts the largest proportion, per capita, of asylum seekers – known in Ireland as International Protection Applicants (IPAs).

It is claimed one in every 100 people in the county is now an IPA.

“The concern people have about immigration in Donegal is equality,” local radio host Greg Hughes says.

“They feel people coming to the country, or people being offered refuge, are given priority.”

Greg hosts a live daily local phone-in programme on Highland Radio.

At his studios in Letterkenny, he says perhaps voters are “feeling grumpy or perhaps disconnected” because not all the problems in Ireland are new.

He suggests that people also have not seen meaningful moves to address them.

“I am not saying the government isn’t trying or they aren’t doing their best but the reality is you say to someone in Donegal that this current country is incredibly rich, they’ll say, ‘Well, when’s this going to trickle down into my pocket?’”

While chatting to Margarite in Letterkenny Shopping Centre, she says that she feels she is being “gaslighted” – the act or practice of grossly misleading someone, especially for one’s own advantage – by politicians.

“I think there’s a gap between the wealth in the country and the people on the ground,” she tells the BBC.

“I think people might be grumpy about the fact they’re constantly being told almost they feel like they’re being gaslit that we’re a rich country with all these resources.

“But when it comes down to things in rural areas, public transport, investment in roads, investment in local hospitals and the rate of pay in areas such as Donegal, we don’t feel that wealth.

“And I think that causes an awful lot of frustration.”