THE POLITICAL issues in Ireland and Europe were essentially the same, Labour leader Eamon Gilmore told a news conference at the European Commission offices in Dublin yesterday where he presented the party’s four candidates for the European elections on June 5th.
Labour’s objective was to win a seat in each of the four constituencies said Mr Gilmore, who was accompanied by Proinsias De Rossa, sitting MEP for Dublin; Nessa Childers, candidate in Ireland East; Senator Alan Kelly, candidate in Ireland South; and Susan O’Keeffe, candidate in Ireland Northwest.
“We are in the business of winning,” Mr Gilmore said. “These are very important elections for both Ireland and for Europe.”
Ms O’Keeffe, a former journalist with Granada TV’s World in Action, displayed photographs of her court case in the mid-1990s when an unsuccessful attempt was made to oblige her to reveal sources who provided her with information about alleged malpractice in the beef industry.
She also distributed boxes containing a half-dozen duck-eggs from her home in Sligo to Mr Gilmore and her fellow-candidates. The Labour leader quipped that they were clearly organic eggs because they were “suitably smeared with duck excrement”.
Mr Kelly said he had been “on the campaign trail” in Munster since July, meeting people who were mainly concerned about jobs.
He criticised political opponents as part of the “chicken and wine circuit” in Europe and pledged that, if elected, he would not become “the invisible man”.
Nessa Childers said she had been “criss-crossing” the Ireland East constituency since her nomination. “Jobs are at the forefront of people’s minds from Wexford to Louth and from Wicklow to Offaly,” she added. “We have to restore integrity to the Irish system of government,” she said. “We can’t afford to have these people representing us any longer.”
Mr De Rossa said it was “a disgrace” that Charlie McCreevy was Ireland’s European commissioner, promoting the same policies he had espoused in his former role as minister for finance.
“We must not allow this Government to select another Charlie McCreevy-like commissioner . . . We must insist that the Dáil has a say in who is selected . . . We cannot allow Charlie McCreevy or his like to dictate the kind of society that we and our children will live in.” he said.
He gave an “absolute commitment” that Labour MEPs would not support the appointment of any member to the new commission who did not support “an agenda for jobs and justice”.
Mr Gilmore said: “Our economic recovery is bound up with economic recovery in Europe. The political battle which is taking place in Europe is similar to the political battle that is taking place here.”
It was a battle about employment and stimulating the economy, he said.