Working in Brussels: Ireland’s MEPs

Working in Brussels

As the dust settles from the European election on 5 June, eolas looks at the shape of Ireland’s representation in Europe for the next five years.

Dublin

Joe Higgins
Socialist Party / GUE/NGL

As a first-time MEP and sole Socialist Party representative from Ireland, Higgins is now the only Member to oppose the Lisbon Treaty, since Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald lost her seat in the constituency.

Indeed he has taken on Mary Lou’s role in more ways than one. In spite of unseating her in the constituency he has also chosen to sit with Sinn Féin’s GUE/NGL grouping.

He has pledged to defend public services through the European Federation of Public Service Unions.

Higgins sits on the Committee on International Trade and is a substitute on both the Committee on Petitions and Employment and Social Affairs.

Gay Mitchell
Fine Gael / EPP

As sitting MEP, Mitchell was re-elected on 5 June. He now sits on the Committee on Development and is substitute on the Economic

and Monetary Affairs Committee. He was first elected in 2004.

Leader of the Fine Gael grouping in the Parliament, Mitchell has very much been a European man over the last two decades; in 1987 he was the party’s Campaign Director for the Single European Act referendum, again in 1992 for the Maastricht Treaty and in 1998 for the Amsterdam Treaty referendum.

Proinsias de Rossa
Labour / S&D

Longstanding MEP de Rossa believes the biggest challenge is to make Europe more relevant to the Irish people. That, he

says, starts with the reform of how the Irish Commissioner is selected, giving the Dail the final say. Currently the post is filled by appointment by the Taoiseach.

With his party actively campaigning for a ‘yes’ vote the Dublin man believes Lisbon could aid Ireland’s economic recovery, just as it had done since 1973.

Leader of the Labour grouping in the Parliament, he sits on the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs and is a substitute on the Development Committee.

North West

Pat The Cope Gallagher
Fianna Fáil / ALDE

Pat ‘The Cope’ has been appointed to the Fisheries and Regional Policy Committees for this Parliament. As leader of

the Fianna Fáil grouping in the European Parliament he has warned against Lisbon Treaty ‘yes’ campaigners becoming complacent. Instead he has said that the legal guarantees agreed by the EU must be sold to the Irish people after their concerns expressed in the referendum last year.

Gallagher, who is a former MEP for the area from 1994 until 2002, has praised the work of the EU particularly in Ireland throughout the recession.

Marian Harkin
Independent / ALDE

Sitting MEP Harkin was re- elected on 4 June and will take her seat on the Employment and Social Affairs Committee as a full member. She will also act

as substitute on both the Agriculture and Rural Development Committee and the Committee on Petitions.

Following up her personal interest, she has promoted volunteering on an EU-wide level.

She sits with liberal grouping ALDE but advocates inter-grouping alliances on matters such as agriculture to guard against policies which will would be “disastrous” for other member states such as the increased competition in the sugar industry for Ireland, leading many sugar producers to exit the sugar beet production.

Jim Higgins
Fine Gael / EPP

Higgins will sit on the Committee on Transport and Tourism as well as deputising on both the Fisheries Committee and the Committee on Petitions.

The Fine Gael MEP will continue to sit with the now-reformed EPP centre-right grouping.

He has reiterated that he will be supporting the Lisbon Treaty and will seek to highlight the jobs that could be created by the treaty passing; which he says would allow for more EU funding to reach the tourism sector.

Specifically regarding his own region he says he will be pushing for improved access to the area as well as improved marketing.

South

Brian Crowley
Fianna Fáil / ALDE

As co-President of the UEN throughout the last term, Crowley had difficulty with his party’s shift in allegiance from the UEN to the liberal ALDE grouping, wondering publicly whether liberal policies would fit in with Fianna Fáil’s party ethos. He is a member of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy and is a substitute on the Legal Affairs Committee.

On the Legal Affairs Committee he has lobbied for copyright on music recordings to be extended from the existing 50 years to 95 years. Crowley also pushed for a separate pot of money to be used to fund session musicians.

Alan Kelly
Labour / S&D

Upon taking his seat, the European Parliament debutant set out the economy as his main priority. He believes it is incumbent on the Parliament to create legislation that allows for conditions in which new jobs can be created.

In spite of that his “most immediate” challenge is campaigning to see the Lisbon Treaty passed, which he believes will build a better relationship between Europe and Ireland and a better investment climate.

He has been appointed to the Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection and the Agriculture and Rural Development Committee as a substitute.

Seán Kelly
Fine Gael / EPP

Centring on the importance of the family, the former GAA President says the most important thing a government should provide for its people is the chance

to be able live, work, and raise a family in any part of the country.

The former teacher and farmer says European programmes such as Leader could kick-start rural enterprises and help to bring about real growth.

He also says simply that as an MEP he will prioritise aid for the marine sector.

Referring specifically to his own area he believes the Cork to Swansea ferry should be restored. Europe, he says, can play a part by backing plans for it.

East

Liam Aylward
Fianna Fáil / ALDE

Beginning his second term in the Parliament, Aylward. He has been keen to outline how the Lisbon Treaty protects Ireland’s position, highlighting the right to life. He also claims that Lisbon fully respects Ireland’s policy of neutrality that it will be taking its own decisions over defence expenditure and involvement in peace-keeping missions.

The Fianna Fáil Member will sit on the Agriculture and Rural Development Committee as well as substituting on the Culture and Education Committee.

Nessa Childers
Labour / S&D

The newly elected Labour MEP replaces retiring Fine Gael MEP Avril Doyle. Childers plans to fight for both job creation and job

retention in Leinster, an area which, she says, has been “ravaged by redundancies and unemployment” in the last two years.

In an effort to tackle the unemployment rate, Childers has proposed an improvement of commuter rail links which she believes will bring employment. She cites the Wexford-Arklow- Wicklow train line to Dublin running only twice daily as a problem which forces the would-be commuter either to shy away from working in the city or to resort to private transport.

Childers would also like to attract more tourists into the Leinster region.

Mairead McGuinness
Fine Gael / EPP

The Fine Gael Member started her second parliamentary term in July. As a former RTÉ

broadcaster, journalist and agricultural economics graduate, she has said that one of her main priorities will be to push the Parliament to tackle the price paid to farmers for their products and “force the EU Commission to lift the lid on
the opaque world of how supermarkets source, price and mark-up food … We must seize this opportunity to start asking hard questions of the powerful retail sector across the EU.”

The Meath woman sits on the Agriculture and Rural Development and the Committee on Petitions and acts as substitute on the Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety.