Tonight Matthew, I'm going to be....an MEP

By Kate Manning

From the recent TNS/MRBI poll the East Constituency looks to be easily predictable. Mairead McGuinness (Fine Gael) is a certainty and has been from day one of the campaign trail. She will embark on her second term in the European Parliament and deservedly so.

Having spent time with Mairead in Brussels this March, it’s clear she is dedicated to Europe and works extremely hard. It became apparent quite early on in my trip to Brussels that her peers, not just from Ireland, hold her in high regard. She will most definitely spend the next five years in the European Parliament. However, I don’t believe she will secure her seat by as great a margin as the previous polls have suggested as a vote management strategy by Fine Gael in the south of the constituency will see many people transferring their votes to John Paul Phelan

Liam Aylward (Fianna Fáil) is another certainty. Having performed well in the opinion polls, he has a lot of support in the constituency particulary in the Carlow/Kilkenny area. He too has worked hard and deserves his seat. I spent some time with him also in Brussels and I was impressed with how passionately he spoke about Europe and his role in the Parliament. Also with Fianna Fail possibly about to bear the brunt of the nations anger, diehard supporters of the party will make sure Liam gets the vote.

Nessa Childers (Labour) also looks set to take a seat. She launched a successful campaign and I think a lot of people will vote for her because of her father. I met her briefly and was not impressed at her dismissive nature. Maybe it is because I’m young but at the end of the day I still have a vote. Also while on air in KCLR the Carlow/Kilkenny radio station, she made a serious mistake by saying she did not “have a huge knowledge about agriculture”. Unfortunately agriculture is an essential part of the EU. Regardless of this matter, she does look like the favourite to win the third seat, just ahead of John Paul Phelan.

Being a young voter, I would have liked to have seen John Paul Phelan take the last seat. His age plays a big part in this as does his honesty about not knowing everything about Europe but being willing to learn. I thought that would have been a journey all younger voters could embark on with him if he were successful. No doubt he would have raised awareness for the EU here in Ireland. Unfortunately, it looks unlikely that he will succeed. Pity though.


So my prediction: Mairead McGuinness, Liam Aylward and Nessa Childers to take the three seats.