Unsuccessful European Parliament election candidate Eddie Punch has said that, among his most important post-election plans, buying covers for the silage pit is one of the most pressing.
Reflecting on his campaign and the election, the Clare man told Agriland that he “knows what it’s like to be Brian Lohan after a major disappointment”.
Now that the campaign is over, the silage work, which was put on hold during his election bid, becomes the priority for the former general-secretary of the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association (ICSA).
“Well, we have to get the silage cut immediately, because that’s been long-fingered,” Punch said.
“I’m planning to buy some covers for the silage pit and get that done, and after that I have a whole load of jobs to catch up with at home.”
In terms of whether a further foray into politics might be in his future, Punch took a reflective attitude to his campaign, and the logistics and challenges of running as a first time candidate, initially as an independent and then as a member of the new, and as yet small, Independent Ireland party.
“One of the things about this is that it costs an absolute fortune. It costs tens of thousands of euro, and the reality is that running for an election, unless you’re with one of the major big political parties, involves a huge personal sacrifice,” he said.
“We had absolutely fantastic support from friends in Clare and around the country, and we had a fantastic team of people, but the reality is if you look around the country the established political candidates had 10 posters for every one Eddie Punch poster, and it’s difficult to bridge that gap,” he added.
“That’s the reality of it. I’m going to have to go away and reflect about all of this. The one thing I would say is I spent a good bit of money on this, and I’m very proud of the fact that I supported local companies. My posters were made here is Shannon, my leaflets were made in Shannon, our website was done in Kerry.”
“It was a philosophy of mine that you try to support good business locally in Ireland,” Punch said.
Commenting on the national election campaign, Punch was critical of how it was covered in national media, particularly the coverage of candidates outside of the main parties.
“We were up against it. I was a first-time candidate up against huge party machines with a lot of experience and a lot of money and influence. I would feel very strongly that the coverage by national media was very poor. There was no opportunity really for new candidates to get a fair crack of the whip at national debates, and that’s something that needs to be reflected on,” he said.
“Many many people we met on the doorsteps were completely detached from the EU, they had no interest in the European Parliament elections. Worse still, you had many people who would be interested, but just didn’t know what to vote for, and who to vote for, or what to vote on.”
Punch claimed that many people who voted in the European elections may have been voting on a “hunch”.
“It’s all fine to say it doesn’t matter, but it will matter eventually when there is a referendum on Europe, and then politicians suddenly want to engage with people on Europe. But the people will be saying that they know nothing about Europe,” he said.
Punch added that providing coverage to all candidates isn’t just about promoting them, but also “quizzing them and challenging them, and asking them if their platforms make sense”.
“So in some respects, there are candidates out there who are not being put through their paces on national television, [and that is] potentially an advantage to them, because they can reach people by different means.”
He said that there is a “serios amount of reflection” that should be done by national media over what he called “the absolutely atrocious lack of coverage” of the overall campaign.
“You can’t just have European election after European election and…keep people in the dark…and then when it comes to it say we want to have a real discussion about how important Europe is. You can’t say Europe is important and be quite happy to stand idly by when there is no debate,” Punch commented.