DEPARTING THE DÁIL: MARY UPTON:POLITICS WOULD not have been Mary Upton's first career choice, because she knew the lifestyle, having helped her brother Pat Upton, a Labour Party TD for Dublin South Central.
His unexpected death in 1999, however, meant a life-changing decision for the lecturer and doctor of food microbiology. “I knew the ups and downs and took a long time to make up my mind,” she says about standing in the byelection.
When she started in the Dáil “I found life relatively straightforward, based on what I had known from the outside. I went through that lovely soft period of the Celtic Tiger where there was plenty and no serious challenges.”
However, “in the last two and a half to three years I have seen an extraordinary change in facilities and services, the way the marginalised are now even more on the margins of society.
“The financial fear people have and the concern for their children gradually built up, escalated in 2008 and this year it’s at its worst. People worked really hard to keep their children in school and get them to third level and they are now facing the prospect of emigration.”
There is “huge anger for politicians who allowed it to happen, for developers and for bankers. There is an element that people feel all politicians are the same.” But she has been “a TD for 11 years and a bit and we have been in Opposition for all that time. We’re not in a decision-making position and all we can do is hold the Government to account.” Currently spokeswoman on tourism, culture and sport, she has held a number of portfolios including agriculture and food safety.
Nothing dramatic prompted her decision to retire. She realised however that re-election would mean another four or five years’ commitment. “I’m 64 and I don’t want to be the only one coming in when I’m nearly 70.”
That “was the tipping point for me and I thought, that’s enough of that”. And “whatever anyone might say, it’s a demanding lifestyle”.
She wants to “wind down for a while. I’m still very interested in food science in a general way. I would like to do certain things and food science is one of them, but I’m making no huge commitments, no grand plan.”
She has “no major regrets. It would have been nice to be in government to be able to influence policy in a positive way. But I had to make that decision, that even though the probability is that Labour will be in government, it is time for me to go.” Reflecting on the need for the “whole political system” to be reformed, she says that “as a TD sometimes you feel totally ineffective”. There are the “slightly archaic procedures that we have to go through.
“On the order of business [when the day’s agenda in the Dáil is set] you want to raise something that’s important. Then because it’s not on promised legislation we have a bit of drama and a bit of yelling across the House and I’m not good at that.”
She also questions why TDs cannot have written parliamentary questions answered throughout the summer. “Why do we have to close down the shop completely?”
Her brother’s son Cllr Henry Upton was selected to stand in the general election. She says it was “his choice entirely to run. I think it’s a tough life. He’s 30, he’s young, he was brought up in politics.” What about criticism of political dynasties? “I have great problems around the dynasty argument. It suggests that somehow or other voting rights are in the control of a few people. I think it’s insulting to the voter.”
