Dylan Haskins in Trinity's Front Square, the day after announcing his candidacy for the General Election
by Tom Lowe, Editor
On a day packed with media appearances for third year Classics and History of Art student Dylan Haskins, he took the time to drop in to the University Times office to talk about his recently-revealed General Election ambitions.
At 23, he’s already a veteran of Dublin’s cultural scene, with a CV as long as your arm – the mastermind behind Exchange Dublin, RTÉ presenter, and founder of his own record label, Dylan was a dead cert to take a spot on our Trinity Twenty list of students to watch in September.
Despite his experience in the spotlight, he seems a little bewildered by all of the attention surrounding his candidacy as he arrives for the interview. Certainly he’s got experience, but we never imagined the boyish Dubliner as a politician.
His decision to run is, unsurprisingly, tinged with the do-it-yourself attitude that characterised his work in Dublin City. “I’ve always been very political, but I’ve never been very excited by the political institutions in Ireland. When I was fifteen I wrote three letters to Martin Cullen about all these housing estates springing up with no facilities – I got no response and I figured out that if I was going to do anything I’d have to do it myself.”
Tapping into the growing sense of disillusionment at a paralysed State and Ireland’s rapid fall from grace, Haskins says of the last few months of the 30th Dáil “I’ve been so frustrated. We protest, there’s 30,000 of us on the streets and it makes no difference, we protest again with 50,000 people and it still makes no difference, that’s why I decided to run.”
Unwilling to be cast as a politician, Haskins instead views himself as a potential agent of a broader change. “Change happens due to external pressure, but you need someone on the inside to open the door. I want to be the person on the other side of the door.”
Haskins promises a new type of election campaign, fuelled by his youth and that of his volunteers,“None of the people on the campaign have been involved in political campaigns before, although some of them have political expertise. We’re creating a new model of campaigning – we’re native to social media and we know how to use it. Obviously, we also have to knock on doors – it’s the only way to do it, you can have all the social media that you want but you won’t get the votes unless you meet constituents face to face.” The “Vote Dylan Haskins No. 1” Facebook page had 839 fans at the time of press, a great haul over two days but still below Haskins’s 1,000+ friends on his personal Facebook.
Unhappy with what he views as the “clientism” of Irish politics, Haskins is campaigning for transparency and accountability at a local level. “Rather than doing a constituency clinic, I want to run a monthly constituency forum, where I will invite the TDs and councillors from the area to discuss both local and national issues.”
As a student, it’s unsurprising to find that Haskins is a fan of free fees: “I am totally opposed to any type of graduate loan scheme, and the current registration fee is too high as well. Education is fundamental to any kind of democratic society and education should be free across the board.”
You can't intimidate the Times, Mr Haskins.
Despite what he calls “an unrepayable debt” Haskins maintains that “there is a light at the end of the tunnel” if government can facilitate entrepreneurs’ desire to create. “At the moment we’re crippled by bureaucracy and poor communications. The government needs to provide the resources for entrepreneurs, whether by providing funding, property or waiving commercial rates. The government don’t have the creative ideas to make things happen, they need to facilitate the entrepreneurs rather than telling people “no” and having them leave the country and making their money elsewhere”
Haskins refuses to be drawn on his ideological viewpoint, claiming that he has none: “I never subscribed to any particular ideology. You can’t commit to something wholeheartedly without questioning what you’re doing. I’m guided by a set of values like honesty, including people in the decisions that affect them and kindness. I’m about common sense and always asking ‘what works best in this situation?’ You can’t be ideological when you’re trying to be pragmatic, relying on what some lad wrote in a book 100 years ago.” Haskins’s antipathy to Irish party politics is evident – he’s issues-focused, but you get the feeling that his lack of experience in the political arena may be his downfall. Rather than fitting into the mould of a vocational politician, he sees himself as someone who can bring his community together and lead them.
“Older generations had leadership, whether they liked it or not, from the church and the government. Our generation hasn’t had it from either of those quarters, so we’ve had to create our own moral guidelines, it’s scary but it means that in the future we will be stronger leaders, because we’ll have learned by doing, which is the best way to learn.”
Haskins is running in Dublin South East, a four-seat constituency with experienced sitting candidates from each of the four largest parties: John Gormley, Lucinda Creighton, Chris Andrews and Ruairi Quinn. He seems excited by the prospect of unseating any one of the party-political incumbents. “I’m running in Dublin South East to make a statement, the bastion of the establishment. To be going for a Fianna Fáil dynasty seat or the leader of the Green Party will make a real statement.”
Nevertheless, Haskins wants to stay above the fray – “I’m not going to criticise other candidates. I know now what it takes to run in a general election. I think more people should be running. What I can do is say ‘this is what I’m about and this is what I’d do if I get elected’”
