The Squirrel Fights Back

The night sky’s the limit…

t’s amazing what a difference 24 hours can make…

When we posted yesterday that Squirrel’s Scramble had to close because of an astronomical insurance price hike, we hoped that people in power might be paying attention.

Pascoe & Lang

Well, it turns out that they were.

This evening, the office of Stephen Donnelly TD announced that they had set up a meeting between the Pascoe Lang gang behind Squirrel’s Scramble and the Minister for State in the Department of Finance, Sean Fleming. “It should be happening in the next week or two,” Donnelly’s spokesperson, Galen English, informed us.

Elsewhere, Jennifer Whitmore TD said she’d try and bring the crippling insurance hike – from €26,000 last year to €88,000 this year (when the equivalent cover in Germany is €8,000) – on the Dáil floor, warning Anthea and the gang that it can take weeks or months to get a question heard. “It’s a lottery,” Whitmore explained.

Well, lo agus behold, Jennifer has won the lottery, and she will get to read out her question tomorrow morning, at 9.15am – streaming live here.

“It’s been a pretty remarkable response,” says Anthea Lang. “Not only the hundreds of messages of support from those who have visited Squirrel’s Scramble but from our TDs too. I put the call-out on RTÉ News for our politicians to get in touch, and not only has Jennifer secured a question in the Dáil and Galen arranged a meeting with Sean Fleming but John Brady TD has been very vocal on our behalf, and Steven Matthews has also been in touch.

“It’s given us a degree of hope, and if this is going to be a hard battle, we’re more than ready to put up a good fight…”