It was with shock that I digested the news that Avril Doyle is to stop down from her role as MEP for Ireland East.
She was one woman that epitomised the ethos of Europe and she was a fine ambassador for Ireland in Brussels and Strasbourg.
She surely has some fine boots to fill and personally I don’t think anyone can step in and be as good as Avril has been for us in Europe, as her ability has come from years of experience. She is a powerhouse of a politician and she will be sorely missed on the Irish team in Europe.
So who is going to be brave enough to be Avril?! Names have been bandied about including our local Senator John Paul Phelan and our local FG TD Phil Hogan. Would either of them have the interest in leaving local and national politics behind them and heading overseas? I’m not so sure.
Phil Hogan has his sights set on a ministerial role in the future if Fine Gael is ever successful in getting rid of Fianna Fail, while JP has his sights set on a Dail seat as a TD which he narrowly missed out on the last general election. We also have to think about the possibility of having two Kilkenny MEPs and is it a realistic target? Liam Aylward is a also fine MEP for Ireland and Kilkenny in Brussels and he is a top-class vote-getter in Kilkenny - leaving the remainder of votes to be picked up by the new candidate. Kilkenny is a small county and with some 60,000 votes needed to secure the euro seat - maybe it is not as easy as it looks...
Meanwhile cheap flights to Brussels may be a thing of the past if Ryanair is successful in its second bid to take over Aer Lingus. The Take Over Panel is being extremely cautious and they forced the cancellation of a TV debate on Prime Time on RTE this week. Lawyers for Ryanair were granted a judicial review against the ruling from the Irish Takeover Panel who claim that the ruling was effectively a gagging order. However, at the end of the day do we want Ryanair to take over Aer Lingus?
Although Michael O’ Leary claims that this will be for the good of the people - we all know he can be ruthless and people will not get in the way of business. He would admit that himself. Therefore is this the attitude we want to fly with? At least we should have a choice about who we want to fly with. Monopolies have never worked well for consumers in the past and are considered to be quite old fashioned. However, Ryanair promises cheap flights across the board - do you believe him?! I can’t imagine flying yellow pack to the US. In fact the thought of it gives me a pain! However, it may be forced upon us...
Finally, some good news. There has been another cut in interest rates - yippee for us - there is a God! We should be eternally grateful to the European Central Bank because those people seem to be the only people on our side these days. A half per cent which most of the banks have said they will pass on to customers, is due to be shaved off your mortgage over the next weeks. So have a couple of well-deserved drinks on the ECB this weekend and put the recession to the back of your mind for a short while!
Naoise Coogan Editor news@kilkennyadvertiser.ie
