Psychotherapist, former Green Party Councillor for Dun Laoghaire Rathdown and former president’s daughter, Nessa Childers may seem like an unlikely character to be running on the Labour Party ticket for Europe, but she is adamant that she should be there.
During the launch of her election campaign in Carlow Kilkenny last week, she took some time out to visit us at the Kilkenny Advertiser and explain her background and her hopes for the future.
With a day job as a psychotherapist in Trinity College in Dublin, one might wonder where Nessa might fit the European Parliament into her busy schedule. I also wondered how as a former Green party councillor she has ended up on a Labour Party ticket.
“The Labour Party approached me to run for the East seat for Europe and I agreed. I have a Labour background. My father Erskine Childers was a member of the Labour Party and I grew up knowing Labour politics and policies.
Ms Childres had an interesting upbringing having spent almost two years living in Áras an Uachtarán in the Phoenix Park while her father was president of Ireland.
Erskine Childers unfortunately, didn’t see out his term of office and died suddenly as president.
"It was great living in the Áras, however I was just 16 and it was a little intimidating for my friends to come and visit. I also had a bodyguard who would have to follow me to ensure that I wasn’t kidnapped. I was warned not to stand in front of the window with the light on. This was during the time of the Troubles in the North which were at an all-time high. They were afraid I would be kidnapped and held for ransom, I suppose.”
Unemployment
No stranger to the feeling attached to being unemployed both personally and in a professional capacity, Ms Childers — a trained psychotherapist — was herself unemployed in the 80s and had to go back to college to retrain. She finally went into business on her own and she believes that once in the situation people can become very resourceful.
“It’s not the end of the world if you become unemployed. It may seem like it at the time but people are very resilient and find it within themselves to do something else. We have to put systems in place in order to deal with the despair that unemployment brings. The Government needs to put systems in place. I see this despair every day in my day job. Job loss does bring depression and feelings of hopelessness. We have to keep repossessions to a minimum and I have met with relevant people in Brussels to discuss this issue in order to deal with it. My policy is to do something positive to combat joblessness.”
Ms Childers believes that the south-east and Kilkenny has suffered more than most as a result of unemployment.
“This area has suffered disproportionately and I believe that EU funding needs to be diverted from the Central Bank to help this area. Maybe we can use the globalisation fund to deal with the fallout of unemployment. Ideally we need to see the creation of high tech, high-skilled jobs. Then we need to look at our education system to see that children are studying the correct subjects in order to qualify for these jobs.”
South-east university
Ms Childers is also adamant that if the southeast is to prosper and grow like other regions, a university must be sanctioned.
“There is a gap in third level education here and this is not going to help inward investment. We need to see a university at the WIT producing skilled graduates,” she said.
Europe
Ms Childers is very interested in the East seat for Europe but she is just as eager, if she gets the seat, to keep her local clinics at home going strong. She is very aware that Mairead McGuinness and Liam Aylward are two very popular candidates and her main aim is to pick up the seat vacated by sitting MEP Avril Doyle.
“I believe in Cupertino along with competition. When in Europe we are all working for the one country together regardless of party politics. I also think we need a woman in the race. Politics is still a very male-dominated industry and I think this needs to change,” she added.
Lisbon
Although Childers is a supporter of the Lisbon Treaty she is not a fan of an early referendum and believes any new vote needs to be held off until the autumn.
“We need to be very careful about rushing a second vote on Lisbon. I certainly don’t think there should be a vote before the Local and European elections. We need a lot of clarification before the next vote goes ahead. I think we need reassurances about Lisbon and I believe we will get them. We got a no vote for the wrong reasons at the last referendum and we need to ensure that this doesn’t happen again. Lisbon needs to be clarified as opposed to changed. The last campaign was a disaster and we have to be careful next time around. We have to respect the no vote too,” she added.
Local campaign
Ms Childers is optimistic about the European Election campaign in Carlow Kilkenny. Having launched in Graiguenamanagh last week, she said that the Graiguenamanagh Labour Party branch was an extremely active branch.
“I truly believe that we will have another Labour Party TD in 2012 in this electoral area. I also think we need to have a Labour Party MEP from this region. Seamus Pattison is a great ambassador for the party here.
