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Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland

Mairead McGuinness: 'The notion that I'm a safe candidate for Fine Gael is bunkum'

The sitting MEP believes she will have to put up a fight to retain her seat in the upcoming election.

AFTER A DECADE as a Member of the European Parliament, Mairead McGuiness is no stranger to the inner workings of the Union.

She’s also a familiar face to the public, having worked as a journalist with the Farmers Journal, the Irish Independent, and most notably with RTÉ’s Ear to the Ground – and let’s not forget that she could have gone to contest the 2011 President Elections if Gay Mitchell had not snapped up the nomination instead.

However, speaking to TheJournal.ie, McGuinness described the suggestion that she is a safe candidate for her party as “bunkum”.

In the new Midlands-North-West constituency, and as a government party candidate at the time when the Irish public is only just ‘seeing the light at the end of the tunnel of austerity’, she is all too aware she’s facing an uphill fight.

“I would regard this campaign as fighting hard for the last seat,” she said, adding that she would be “lucky” to be elected.

“Since Fine Gael are a party of government there is no doubt that people have a lot of concerns over a whole range of issues,” she said.

In a sense I can kinda emphasis. They’ve been through a war, and they’re tired.

Ten years in Europe has given McGuinness an in-depth knowledge of its inner workings.

She stressed that “if Europe didn’t exist, we would have to create it”.

“We need to have ways of working with each other, ways of trading information”.

She noted that in “the bad days of the crisis, and they really were bad,” the European Central Bank did help us to recover.

While she said some problems with strict regulations at EU-level, it has provided Ireland with massive benefits “in terms of trade, freedom of movement, and market opportunities”.

“More local”

McGuinness said that she feels the Irish public understand how the EU functions – at least the bits relevant to them – but that it needs to become “more local”.

“I’m sure people [I meet canvasing] want to talk about the big, boarder European issues, but they know their personal stuff.”

It’s the medical card issues, it’s the water charges, rents, the lack of spending in our economy.

She added that it isn’t all plain-sailing.

“There’s a lot power politics”, McGuinness noted, adding that the Commission does occasionally have to reined in, and that countries do differ on many elements of the budget.

“A lot of countries will want to keep more of that money in their own economies… there’s a lot of compromises struck.”

Mairead McGuinness on…

The new Midlands–North-West constituency…

The first obstacle in this election is the territory – it’s enormous. When you’re trying to canvas intensively it just seems so vast. People are also confused people, they don’t understanding why I’m running in Roscommon or Donegal.

On the rise of far-right parities….

It’s important to remember that there’s people on the extreme left. These people generally don’t engage, don’t go into detail, don’t get into compromises, and just snipe around the edges… but that’s politics.

EU red tape…

I think we need to reject proposals for new legislation. We need to implement what’s there, and change what isn’t working.

The Banking Union…

We need to examine the banking union, and to start watching what’s being implemented to watch that it doesn’t go over the top. Banking has become complicated as a reaction to lax regulation. We need good regulation, but we don’t need to choke credit.

A potential UK exit from the European Union…

Should they decide opt out, if they want to do business with the bloc they would have to comply with the same amount of requirements and regulations but they’ll have no say in the drafting.

And finally, on European politics facts and figures…

As we build up to the 23 May polling day, TheJournal.ie‘s been giving each European Election candidate we interview a quick pop quiz on the institutions.

How many candidates have currently been put forward for Presidency of the European Commission?

Three [Incorrect, it's six]

Name those three.

Schulz, Junker, Verhofstadt [Correct]

How many members are needed to form a political grouping in the European Parliament?

It’s around 20, 25? [It's 25, we'll give her a half point]

How many MEPs are there?

There will be 751 in the new parliament. [Correct]

Mark Dearey: Green Party has ‘maintained its shape under enormous pressure’ >

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56 Comments
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Melissa OHara
    Favourite Melissa OHara
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    May 16th 2021, 11:06 PM

    I used to be good at geography. Then they changed everything! ;)

    230
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute kevinhunt101
    Favourite kevinhunt101
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    May 16th 2021, 10:04 PM

    10, though I did guess 1 I hadn’t a clue, Vaduz?

    83
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    Mute Mr Snrub
    Favourite Mr Snrub
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    May 16th 2021, 10:49 PM

    @kevinhunt101: 9 because Vaduz couldn’t be in Andorra

    30
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    Mute Liz O'Neill
    Favourite Liz O'Neill
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    May 17th 2021, 1:08 AM

    I’ve actually been to Nuuk.,back in the eighties There was a museum of mummified Inuits and one supermarket. Perversely the bus had a sign prohibiting travellers from eating iced lollies on board. As if they’d want to…

    78
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    Mute Gillian O'Coinne
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    May 16th 2021, 10:04 PM

    7 out of ten. Not bad.

    60
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    Mute Andy
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    May 16th 2021, 10:22 PM

    -3 out of 10

    57
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    Mute Brian Roche
    Favourite Brian Roche
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    May 16th 2021, 10:49 PM

    Got the Greenland one right because I watched The Secret Life of Walter Mitty last night

    50
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    Mute Setanta Stylfox
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    May 16th 2021, 10:21 PM

    10 out of 10

    34
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    Mute Gerard Moroney
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    May 16th 2021, 10:25 PM

    @Setanta Stylfox:

    7
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    Mute kevin mc cormack
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    May 17th 2021, 12:42 AM

    @Setanta Stylfox: please do the Lottery next week I’ll pay for it

    13
    See 1 more reply ▾
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    Mute Joan Doyle
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    May 17th 2021, 8:11 AM

    @Setanta Stylfox: with a name
    like that you shouldn’t get lost ?

    2
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    Mute Colm de Cleir
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    May 17th 2021, 12:03 AM

    7/10 is “Middlin”? I’m sure I’ve gotten less than that before and been “Fintastic”!

    28
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    Mute Nollaig Kelly
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    May 17th 2021, 12:51 AM

    @Colm de Cleir: I also got 7 out of 10 but said I was grand

    13
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    Mute Diarmuid #STAYATHOME
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    May 16th 2021, 10:40 PM

    10/10. Greenland was a total guess though

    26
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    Mute Anto Whelan
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    May 16th 2021, 10:45 PM

    10 easy

    22
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    Mute The Kev in Kevlar
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    May 17th 2021, 1:26 AM

    Vaduz is awesome,stayed there for a night while driving around Europe..so small all the light flash yellow constantly xD

    11
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    Mute Brian Roche
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    May 16th 2021, 10:49 PM

    Got the Greenland one right because I watched The Secret Life of Walter Mitty last night

    11
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    Mute Colm de Cleir
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    May 17th 2021, 12:03 AM

    @Brian Roche: I got it right because the second option made it obvious the author was making a joke about the first one. ..

    25
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    Mute Ger Power
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    May 17th 2021, 11:04 AM

    Geography always been my strong subject, an easy 10/10. Watching Ireland playing away games also helped.

    9
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    Mute Alan McDonald
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    May 16th 2021, 11:53 PM

    9

    4
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    Mute Pierre Maanen
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    May 17th 2021, 8:49 AM

    10/10

    3
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    Mute Noel
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    May 17th 2021, 1:05 PM

    8/10 should have really got that Portugal question right to make 9/10. Would have never got that Greenland one though.

    2
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    Mute Ed
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    May 17th 2021, 11:24 AM

    I saw a video of Conan O’Brien in Nuuk. It was quite humourous.

    2
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    Mute Bennasi84
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    May 17th 2021, 10:59 AM

    9/10 fooking Greenland

    2
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