Kieran Cuddihy’s Liveline reveals ominous shifts in Ireland’s public mood – The Irish Times
Flor Lynch
Radio: While self-serving spin causes a flutter on David McCullagh and Morning Ireland
It sounds like something from a gangster movie set in 1920s Chicago, but a turf war is apparently being fought in Ireland for control of the numbers game, even if the battle for lucrative gambling income detailed on Today with David McCullagh (RTÉ Radio 1, weekdays) is, thankfully, neither lethal nor illegal.
But while the dispute caused by the National Lottery’s push to ban bookmakers offering bets on its draws is a bust in terms of visceral drama, it hits the jackpot when it comes to self-serving virtue signalling.
With a lottery-commissioned report finding that the market for secondary betting on Lotto draws is worth €828 million, of which €81 million would otherwise go to good causes, McCullagh speaks to Sharon Byrne of the Irish Bookmakers Association, who, predictably enough, takes a different view.
She characterises the mooted move as a market-share grab by a monopoly that has run out of other revenue avenues, bemoaning that Lotto machines are placed “in the middle of the chocolate bars in the petrol stations where children are frequenting”.
Such societal concern is touching, but Byrne is also concerned that the National Lottery’s proposal will deprive people of their simple pleasures. “What you’re actually affecting are the punters who just enjoy spending 10c or 50c on their birthdays,” she says.
At this stage the only likely flutter is that of listeners’ heart rates soaring at the multimillion gambling industry passing itself off as the altruistic guardian of innocent pastimes.
Never one for easy credulity, McCullagh sounds dubious about the bookies’ selflessness: “You wouldn’t be offering this product if you weren’t making money on it.”
Byrne counters that betting on the lottery numbers probably only accounts for 5 per cent of bookmakers’ total income, but she still defends the practice, saying it’s no different from a wager at the Punchestown Festival.
The host, however, remains unimpressed: “Surely you can offer your punters something else to bet on.”
One imagines you’d get good odds on that all right.
The core of the National Lottery is that societal dividend
— Cian Murphy
When it comes to overstating a case, however, it’s evens between the bookies and the Lotto. Speaking to Justin McCarthy on Morning Ireland (RTÉ Radio 1, weekdays), Cian Murphy, the chief executive of Premier Lotteries Ireland, which holds the licence to run the National Lottery, advocates for a ban by stressing the philanthropic element of his organisation.
“The core of the National Lottery is that societal dividend,” Murphy gamely insists, emphasising that 30c of each €1 spent goes to charitable areas. “The good-cause element is absolutely key to players,” he says.
So that’s why they flock to buy multiple tickets when the jackpot reaches eight figures.
McCarthy isn’t convinced. “People don’t feel the Lotto is a charitable donation,” the host says. “They play it because they feel they can win a pile of cash.” And, McCarthy observes, players can win up to €400 on three numbers at the bookies as opposed to €10 on the lottery.
Ultimately, the anchor’s hackles are raised more by Murphy’s portrayal of the Lotto as an unselfish font of benevolence than by his call for a ban, much as McCarthy sounds miffed by his guest’s rosy depiction of bookies’ betting products. Ultimately, as McCarthy says: “Gambling is gambling.”
In fairness, the gambling industry is hardly alone in putting a self-servingly saintly spin on less-than-lofty actions, as underlined by McCarthy’s interview with Minister of State for Migration Colm Brophy on the Government’s decision to withdraw hotel accommodation for Ukrainian refugees.
While the minister concedes that the measure will benefit the State in terms of savings, he frames the removal of such supports – always intended to be temporary, he notes – in the sunny language of a life coach. “We want people to be able to avail of choices,” Brophy says; the choices being a return to their homeland – still at war – or a search for housing here.
Asked whether removing Ukrainians from hotels will swamp an already scarce rental market, the minister is again upbeat. “We believe there is going to be sufficient capacity,” he says, without offering much factual basis for his optimism.
His mood only dips when McCarthy wonders if the measure will “destroy” the bonds between Ukrainian and local communities. Rather, Brophy says, by building “long-term paths” for refugees who wish to remain it is “actually enhancing the integration of Ukrainians with Ireland”.
The tenor of the interview is neatly, if somewhat generously, captured by Kieran Cuddihy, host of Liveline (RTÉ Radio 1), who sums up the minister’s message as: “‘We’re doing them a favour’ is it how it sounded.” But, as Cuddihy discovers, it’s a favour that some of his callers welcome.
True, Ukrainians sound unnerved by the decision. Maria, the blind mother of a toddler residing in a hotel in Bray, Co Wicklow, is worried about what happens next. “I’m really lost,” she says. “There is no safe place in Ukraine.”
While Maria’s circumstances are exceptional, her anxiety is echoed by compatriots who phone in. Other callers agree with the Government’s decision, however. “I think we’ve been more than overgenerous,” says Ciaran.
Hunting for a new flat himself, Ciaran believes Ukrainians have an undue advantage in the rental market thanks to the accommodation recognition payment that landlords receive for housing refugees. “I don’t mind paying my way. I pay all my taxes,” Ciaran adds, but his annoyance at a perceived lack of a level playing field is palpable.
Rachel, meanwhile, casts doubt on the notion that nowhere in Ukraine is safe, basing her assertion on anecdotal evidence – “I know a family that went back over for a month” – and an admittedly tenuous trust in the Government’s wisdom: “Much as I despise Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, I highly doubt they’d send people back to places that were unsafe.”
Rachel expresses sympathy for refugees, but she nonetheless “struggles” with the testimony of Ukrainian callers to the continuing lethality across the country.
Though the issue at hand is the removal of refugee supports, such contributions seem underpinned by the same simmering, if misdirected, sense of discontent and resentment among the fabled “squeezed middle” that drove last month’s fuel protests. (Similar sentiments are expressed more stridently on Wednesday’s show by Teresa, a carer in Wicklow whose view of the country is so doomy that the host feels the need to push back.)
[ Top Ukrainian official questions Irish move to phase out housing supportsOpens in new window ]
The complaints that Cuddihy fields don’t make for edifying listening, but they hint at ominous shifts in public mood. Talk about high stakes.
Moment of the week
With household budgets tightening, Katie Hannon and Colm Ó Mongáin solicit advice on what to do with leftovers on Drivetime (RTÉ Radio 1, weekdays).
Chef Edward Hayden offers tips on reviving such grub for consumption (avoid microwaving if possible), but as he describes how he poaches overripe pears – a particular bugbear of Ó Mongáin’s – his line repeatedly cuts out.
“He’s really gone,” Hannon says when Hayden’s voice disappears for a second time. Ó Mongáin can’t help himself: “There’s nothing left over in that interview.”
Kudos for not allowing any opportunity for wordplay to go to waste.