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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMS5YhSSGuQ
(Video: TheJournal.ie/YouTube)
INDEPENDENT MEP CANDIDATE Marian Harkin readily admits that she is daunted by the “huge” size of the new ‘Midlands North-West’ constituency.
“The truth is, I could spend from now until the 23 May in Kildare and I wouldn’t even cover it … Now nearly no matter what way I leave Dublin, except south, I’ll be in my constituency,” Harkin said.
Currently a sitting MEP in ‘Ireland North-West’, if re-elected the Sligo-born former TD will take on five new counties and 550,000 more constituents.
“I don’t allow myself to think about the whole constituency in one go, because if I do I just realise it becomes impossible,” Harkin said.
Whenever she’s not in Brussels, Harkin will be canvassing to increase her “visibility” in the vastly expanded constituency. She said that losing out to Dana in the 1999 European elections taught her a valuable lesson: “If people don’t know you, there’s no chance of them voting for you.”
This time out Harkin will face competition from fellow sitting MEPs Jim Higgins and Mairead McGuinness (both Fine Gael), Labour’s Lorraine Higgins, sitting MEP Pat ‘The Cope’ Gallagher and Thomas Byrne (both Fianna Fáil), Sinn Féin’s Matt Carthy and Mark Dearey of the Greens.
Too many Independents?
In terms of Independents, she will be pitted against Senator Rónán Mullen, Mark Fitzsimons and, as of Friday, TD Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan.
The mother-of-two said that there is a danger of vote dilution due to the fact so many high-profile Independents are running in western counties.
“You have three high-profile independents running in Sligo, Roscommon and Galway (herself, Flanagan and Mullen) and you have the whole east and only two candidates: Thomas Byrne and Mairéad McGuinness – I mean, they literally have it to themselves,” she stated.
Harkin, who is part of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), has won consecutive MEP of the Year awards – for her contribution to the European Year of Volunteering in 2011 and her work on the Employment and Social Affairs Committee in 2012.
She said she will continue to work on the committee if re-elected, adding that social indicators such as homelessness and child poverty should have the “same weight” as economic issues in terms of European policy making. “I know that’s not headline stuff and that’s not sexy stuff,” she added.
Trade Agreements
Harkin said that Ireland “can’t keep relying on” foreign direct investment and must work to protect sectors like the agri-food industry as it “will always be a driver of our economy”. In this regard, she is concerned about pending trade agreements between Europe and the US and South America. “The real fear is that they will allow significant amounts of high quality beef into the European Union without tariff,” she noted.
As Vice President of the Disabilty Intergroup, Harkin has been working with the Disability Federation of Ireland to make public websites more accessible. She is also among those calling for the introduction of a European disability card that would enable people with disabilities to enjoy the same rights they have in their country of residence, in terms of parking and access to buildings, in all member states.
Harkin said that she will spend between €70,000 and €90,000 of her own money on the campaign.
Marian Harkin on…
On being an Independent:
I don’t fundraise so I just use my own money. I have no resources available … At least if you’re in a party, they’ll put up more posters .. I rely on guys with vans and ladders, literally. I’m not without assets, I have a lot of people who will do everything possible to get me re-elected. It’s all voluntary. I don’t pay anybody to do anything … if a crowd were out canvassing, I might buy them their dinner in the evening.”
On the Youth Guarantee Scheme:
[It] is not sufficient, but it’s better than nothing, but not much more could I say for it. We don’t have enough money, but then the problem is if we put more money in to the Youth Guarantee, where do we take it from? … It is just a small step. In order to deal with the issue of unemployment, we’ve got to look at who creates employment. There are only two ways we create employment – either the state creates jobs themselves, or entrepreneurs do.”
On SMEs:
Small businesses in Ireland pay two per cent extra to borrow money more than they do in Germany so how in God’s name can we become competitive? Last week in the Parliament I said to Olli Rehn until we begin to pay as much attention to surpluses as we do to deficits, this problem isn’t going to sort itself out … The only way that we can become more competitive is to drive down prices and to drive down wages and, I mean, you can’t keep doing that – that’s a downward spiral.”
On “time-limited” gender quotas:
I’m strongly supportive of them. We don’t have a balance – it’s not that women make better decisions than men, they don’t, but they often make different ones … I hear women saying ‘Oh, that means you were chosen because you were a women – for God’s sake, people are chosen for lots of reasons, because they’re somebody’s son, or somebody’s nephew, or because they have a particular name … We have this impression that everybody’s chosen on merit, my foot – they are not! Sometimes they are, sometimes they’re not.”
On life as an MEP:
“You couldn’t work at this pace all your life, but I can do it now because I have the time and I have the flexibility. I couldn’t have done this when I had younger children … Do I long to sit down and read a book? Yes and no. I really do enjoy what I do, I get a lot of satisfaction out of it.”
On her musical party piece (she’s also a singer):
“It depends, if I was in the west I might sing The West’s Awake but that can no longer be my party piece now because I’m up in Kildare and Meath and places like that … I think Crazy by Patsy Kline, that’s universal.”
At the end of the interview Harkin was given TheJournal.ie‘s EU politics quiz — four questions on the history and workings of the European institutions. As a sitting MEP, she’s sure to pass with flying colours…
How many seats will there be in the Parliament after the election?
I hope it’s 751. [It is]
When did Ireland join the EEC?
1973. [Correct]
And what was the last country to join the Eurozone?
Was that Latvia? [It was]
Who is the President of the European Council?
Rompuy. [Correct - Herman Van Rompuy, to be exact]
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She 100% spot on. We need to focus on Irish industry and get Irish companies selling Irish products not on the googles and apples who stay here and literally pay no tax. If apple and google paid what they should be paying it would go a long way to paying off the debts that we owe.
But then they wouldn’t be here in all likelihood. So is it better to get very little corporation tax from them, but large amounts of employment taxes or to get neither and have to support through social welfare the workers currently employed by them?
At a basic level, that is what the choice comes down to.
Thats pure crap, why should we treat these corporations different than irish companies. If the big US companies pay nothing then we shouldn’t complain when an Irish company pays nothing. Treat them the same.
Then we got the vacuum when a US company leaves Ireland what do we do with the unemployed! Put them on a plane and ship them to Australia. If we have irish companies with Irish jobs then people won’t need to emigrate to get work. As long as we depend on US multi nationals we will always have emigration. It is the scourge of society since 1800
That’s what we should do, but our politicians are dancing and the corporate companies are shooting at their feet!
Ned what about the taxes paid by employees, services providers to these large orgs. Take a wholistic view of tax and not the narrow view taken by some seeking votes. Individuals pulling one narrow metric to make a broad statement is both dangerous and demonstrates limited knowledge of full end to end impact of FDi.. Little like comments from left wing TDs and unions.
Short term it works out fine. The problem i have is that we expect an irish company to pay full tax and a foreign company to pay less than 1%. If the company moves on because it can make more money in another country it will and all the jobs are lost.
If apple paid tax that the should then it would be at least 10billion. That would greatly help with current situation. Then u got google facebook and the rest!!!!
It would take a long time for all the employees of the US companies to make 10 billion.
Good MEP – knows her brief, works hard and has smart ideas. What more do can you ask? She’ll get my vote!
Mine too. She talks sense and follows through. Only genuine politician that I know of.
She’s actually one of the better ones out there, though it’s a really competitive constituency so she might struggle, especially with Ming entering the race which could split the independent left wing vote.
That is my worry. Ming is entertaining at times and while he might liven up the campaign a little bit, I fear that his decision to run means that Marian Harkin and him will both lose out. She’s built up a good reputation in Brussels and adds something substansial to the debate. Ming only adds entertainment as far as I can see.
“Independent left wing vote”?
Marian Harkin is a member of ALDE, the same group to which FF belong.
@ Noel: True that they are both part of the ALDE group within the Parliament, but it is slightly more complicated than that.
FF is a member of Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party, while Harkin is a member of the European Democratic Party – which sits with the ALDE grouping in the European Parliament in order to recieve speaking time etc.
A situation somewhat akin to the ULA sitting with Shane Ross and Stephen Donnelly in the Dáil, in order that both can benefit.
Shes right , The govt are a disgrace jetting around the world like clowns allegedly getting investment while our own homegrown entrepreneur and small investors are largely ignored. if we ever hope to get Ireland to stand on its own feet we have to build our own indigenous business from ground up. I would love to see how effective has their so called business trips versus the actual gain recieved has been.
She is right , but no one wants to see small company’s getting a start , I moved back here from the states and tried to get funding to start a company that I have been given a licence by the owner of the parent company in the states to start here , I went to local development boards , done buisness classes , went to Solas and no me wants to hear it , they asked if I was working here now ,I said no of course , and they said I would have to be in receipt of jobseekers for at least a year , which I did ,and still no . I had a meeting for one last attempt three weeks ago and the woman wouldn’t even listen to me in Solas , said I couldn’t get funding I would need to try a job bridge course or an internship and offered me a job grooming dogs , so I’m off out of here and starting it in Newyork to make capital to fund the Irish side of it myself , hopefully , but they could do more , the price of a few flights for these people would have got me going , I had bought my own vehicles for the company already ,just needed to secure first import of product ,ah well , I hope she makes changes .
Seems the job is getting a bit too much for you Marian. . .
In fairness at least she can distinguish between the yes and no buttons when voting unlike our current MEP’s FF/FG/Lab……
It isa bit early yet to be putting up posters, from 23rd April is the correct time.
Yes and cutting hedges ceases on the first of March… Buts its still being done. Country cannot run without breaking the rules.
A small roundabout beside me has 7 from the same candidate. With the catchy slogan “let’s get maynooth working”. She’s a labour candidate. ..she shouldn’t have even bothered
Two more questions
Who voted for the President of the European Council?
Did anyone in Ireland vote for Van Rompuy or for that matter Barroso or even hear of them before they took over ?
1) Who voted for the President of the European Council?
The members of the European Council in 2009 voted for him. The members of the Council are the Heads of State and Government, while the President himself is more like a secretary to a board than anything else. He organises meetings of the European Council and follows up on actions agreed afterwards.
2) Did anyone in Ireland vote for Van Rompuy or for that matter Barroso or even hear of them before they took over ?
Nope, as Van Rompuy was the Belgian Prime Minister – nobody would have voted for him in Ireland. But in effect that doesn’t really matter greatly, because his role is more akin to that of secretary of the board. The two other Presidents – President of the European Commission and President of the European Parliament – are argubably much more powerful in managing the European agenda.
Regarding Barroso, he was selected in 2004 by the members of the European Commission. However this year the process has been changed significantly and MEPs will have more of a role in electing the Commission President, like the Dáil elects the Taoiseach for example.
I hope that helps. European Voice and EurActiv both have good articles outlining how the process will work this year verses 2004.
I found her less than helpful, like most politicians, when I went to her trying to highlight the lack of formal education in my industry. Voters are growing long memories.
What industry
The blacksmith industry. We are the third largest craft industry worth €15m to the Irish economy every year but have no training facility’s. Marian did not feel we were worth supporting.
Needs to keep those hands in her pockets!
It’s rather worrying that she is the second person to say that the role of the job suits her at the moment. I’d love if my job fitted in around my circumstances.
Oh stop putting words in her mouth. She actually said “I couldn’t have done this when I had younger children …”
Yes so what I said is true
Another politician hoping to benefit from gender discrimination.
How so? She was first elected in 2004 as an MEP and is an independent, so never elected using an internal party quota.
The point she makes on the whole system of quotas is quite a good one I thought.
She makes no point at all. Simply makes an ambiguous statement about some people being given the nod because of nepotism. She doesn’t explain her position on this at all.
Do you really believe the answer to perceived inequality is actual statutory discrimination?
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