Hands up who can name the three MEPs who now represent you in the European Parliament. Mayo people will know Fine Gael’s Jim Higgins, who are the other two? They are Fianna Fáil’s Seán Ó Neachtain and independent Marian Harkin. Another quick question: what constituency are we in? If you said Connacht-Ulster you’d be wrong; since the 2004 European elections it’s the North West. Why? Because since then Co Clare has been lumped in with the three Ulster counties and five Connacht counties. But enough of the political lessons. Buncranna town councillor and Donegal county councillor Pádraig Mac Lochlainn is the latest person to throw his hat in the ring for next year’s European elections. The Donegal native has been one of the driving forces in Sinn Féin’s reshuffle since their poorer than expected results in the last general election and was the director of elections for the party on last year’s Lisbon Treaty referendum, where Sinn Féin were one of the leading groups urging people to reject the treaty, which it ultimately was.
This week Pádraig kicked off his campaign in Mayo and spoke to the Mayo Advertiser about the issues that he and his party see as being the keys to his campaign for a seat in the European Parliament. “The first thing it's a very diverse constituency of 11 counties and it touches the four provinces in Ireland, we have to have a message that is broad enough to capture the concerns of this constituency. If you look at the three sitting MEPs they all supported the Lisbon Treaty quite vigorously and they were out of touch with their own electorate, Clare was the only county who supported it out of the 11. You’re looking at 211,000 people here who rejected the treaty. The three sitting MEPs haven't acknowledged that they were out of touch with the electorate, what have they done since to represent the people of this constituency? What are they doing to ensure that the 211,000 people who expressed a democratic wish are being represented properly ?”
Ireland’s place in Europe
While Sinn Féin in the past has been seen as an isolationist party by many keen to keep Ireland out of Europe, Mac Louchlainn is keen to put that image right. “I'll accept that Sinn Féin's policy in Europe was misunderstood in the past, we're not voting to pull out of Europe, we're not rejecting Europe. We have concerns on the direction Europe is taking. From Sinn Féin's perspective, we want to make it very, very clear, we have to be in Europe. We’re a small nation, it's unthinkable that we’re not going to be involved in Europe. There have been many positive aspects of Europe, such as social Europe; protecting workers’ rights, environmental policies and many positive things that have come from Europe. But the difference is Europe is moving away from the social side towards a more privatisation of public services, errosion workers’ rights, too much control over taxation issues.”
He also believes that Irish MEPs have to take a different approach than they have up to this point and it’s time they started playing a bigger role on the European stage and the direction it’s going to go in. The first thing we need to do when we go to Europe is remember we’re a sovereign state and we have a very proud history and have emerged from hundreds of years of colonialism and many facets of modern Irish life are admired internationally. We need to be conscious of what we bring to the table, for too long it's been a cap-in-hand approach when we go to Europe going ah tanks lads for the money’. We gave away a lot to go into Europe, such as a huge chunk of our national waters. The Sinn Féin approach is that you can't politically be an island and we want to build alliances with those across Europe who share our concerns with the way that Europe is going.”
Getting the work done that has to be done
The lack of infrastructural investment being put into this region of Ireland compared to the east of the country is something he feels very strongly about and he believes has to be addressed. “I was involved in a Sinn Féin delegation who met with Jacques Barrot who was the EU Commissioner for Transport, we met him in Strasbourg. We took maps with us and at one stage we were talking about infrastructure in the west of Ireland and we took out a map and showed him the road and rail infrastructure and we said here’s the investment Europe has made in our national development and here's the spend on the east of the country and here’s the spend on the west of the country. He was shocked at what he was looking at.” Mac Louchlainn went on to say that he believed that the MEPs who are there already were not doing all they could for this region. “I have a sense that the people we’re sending to Europe aren't raising the issues for us, they'll say that they are, but they haven't been delivering on it. What we’re entitled to on this part of the island is all we’re looking for.”
Mac Lochlainn also expressed his belief that Sinn Féin has got its fingers on the pulse of the people on the ground when it comes to European matters as the Lisbon Treaty referendum showed. “We've had a complete restructuring of the party, where people of my generation in their 20s and 30s have been moving into more national responsible roles, bringing along expertise that we have. It's an exciting time, if you look at some of the larger parties who are relying on some of the older heads. The Lisbon Treaty was the first test of this new approach and we passed it with flying colours. I've found that if you go in on the ground and listen to the people then you'll earn their trust. For me it's not about a section of the electorate, it's about listening to them and then doing what you can for them.”
