Changing times for new mayor

THE early summer of 2009 won’t easily be forgotten by Michael Fleming.

He lost his job with Paddy Burke Builders in May but weeks later, he was elated when he was voted on to Shannon Town Council for the first time. He was elected mayor of the town last week but still hasn’t found another job after three years and hundreds of applications.
“June 2009 were the elections and I finished work about three weeks before that. I used to work with Paddy Burke Builders and there were four or five of us let go. Basically, I’ve been constantly looking for work, constantly applying for work and there’s no work there,” he told The Clare Champion on Monday.
While the incomes of the likes of John O’Donoghue and Bertie Ahern caused outrage, few people get rich from local politics. Although members of Shannon Town Council get €342 of an allowance each month, it means that Mike’s social welfare entitlements are hit. “If I wasn’t involved in politics, I would get a lot more on social welfare. I’d be doing better but that’s not my lifestyle, I prefer to be out working, it’s not my choice that I can’t get work, it’s not for the want of trying.”
While the money mightn’t be anything substantial, he clearly relishes the work and is genuinely proud of being elected Shannon’s first citizen.
“Going back five or six years, I never thought I’d be Mayor of Shannon, or of any town. At the meeting the other evening, my name called out and being elected unanimously, it was a great feeling, it sent shivers down my back, it was brilliant.”
The work, the contact with the people and making improvements for them are something the 37-year-old enjoys. “I love it, absolutely love it. At a local level, it’s absolutely brilliant. When someone asks you to do something and you achieve it, it feels brilliant, it feels like you’ve achieved something for someone in the town.”
While many people wouldn’t enter politics because of calls from people who want things done, he says sometimes he hopes someone calls to ask him to do something.
He enjoyed his first week as mayor and it’s something that has come at the right time for him. “Being mayor for the next 12 months, it probably suits me in that it will take up a lot of time and the fact that I don’t have work at the minute gives me more time to get to functions and do all the different bits that a mayor is expected to do. If I was working, there might be something during the day, you’d be looking for time off, you mightn’t be able to get to it and you’d feel you’re letting people down.” That said, if he does get a job, he’s definitely going to be taking it up.
Having worked in the construction sector during the boom and having been unemployed for three years, he’s had a good view of the changes in the Irish economy. “Things went up very fast. You could start a block of apartments on a Monday morning and they were nearly built by Friday evening. It was about getting in and out to get onto the next job.
“You could be working 24 hours a day if you wanted to. I had my job on the buildings, I used to do bits and pieces in the evenings but it’s totally gone now.”
While he has kept looking for work, competition is extremely severe. “At one stage, I had over 300 jobs applied for and I got two interviews out of that.
“There were 60 interviewed for one job and it was shortlisted down to 20 and it was really just about making someone who was already there permanent, so it was just a waste of time. The other one was to set up a panel and I’m fourth on that panel but it’s highly unlikely a job will come out of it.”
Last week, he got a call on Monday to attend an interview the very next day. In that case, there were five people being interviewed for a three-month contract, driving a van.
While emigration is one of the classic responses to long-term unemployment, it’s not a great option for a man with two children in school. “I have thought about it and I have been asked to go abroad. But it’s different for a single person; it’s an easier option to move out. I don’t have that.”
Three years out of work, he feels keeping busy is the most important thing for anyone who finds themselves at a loose end.
“It can be mentally and physically damaging but if you keep yourself active and doing stuff, it keeps the brain working. It sort of takes your mind off being out of work but you still have it in the back of your mind that you need a job.
“Where the job is going to come from, you don’t know, so you have to stay involved in things and keep going until something else comes up.”