AHEAD of the European Parliament elections on June 7, we sent a questionnaire with the same eight questions to the candidates running in the Dublin constituency.
Here are the responses from Niall Boylan (Independent Ireland)
It has been 50 years since Ireland joined the EU; has joining had a positive or negative impact on Ireland?
EU membership has undoubtedly been a net positive, but this is a backwards looking question and I am a forward-looking candidate.
Deferring to the EU consensus on every issue simply due to past performance would be poor leadership: There are many EU issues where the federalist instinct simply doesn’t serve Ireland’s interests, and some where it does.
We need the confidence to say no in those areas, such as defence, migration, and the regulation of speech, where we have our own interests.
Would you support Ursula Von Der Leyen in a 2nd term as EU Commissioner?
I am a candidate running on a platform of change; Von Der Leyen is the candidate of continuity.
I will not be supporting her re-election because so many of the problems we face have emerged during her leadership.
Would you work with MEPs such as ones from the AFD in Germany or the PVV in the Netherlands if you are elected?
Every MEP in the next parliament will have the same mandate as me: To represent the people who elected them.
We will all have differences, and I would have some significant differences with those parties.
That said, where we can work together to do something useful for the people who elected us, I will work with MEPs regardless of ideological background. No party has a monopoly on good ideas, or bad ones.
My main focus will be Ireland as that’s all that really matters to me and my job is to get Europe to work for Ireland and not the other way around as it has been for many years
What has the European Union done for the average voter since the last round of elections in 2019?
It was actually 2017, but the example I’d cite of “good Europe” would be the abolition of roaming charges across the continent.
That’s the kind of thing the EU does very well: Using the single market to directly benefit consumers.
What should be the main priorities of the European Parliament over the next 5 years?
The biggest one has to be migration.
If the EU cannot get a handle on that, and secure our borders, confidence in it will collapse.
I think another one that people are not thinking enough about is cybersecurity.
This is one “EU common defence” policy I could get behind.
Migration and security policy will likely dominate the next term of the European parliament. What influence will Ireland have in shaping those policies?
That depends on who we elect.
The Irish Government has by now made it absolutely clear that it cannot be trusted to run an effective, firm, or fair immigration system – whatever Fine Gael’s poll-tested slogan might say.
If we elect people who think everything has been fine for the last five years, then we’ll just get more of the same.
Italy’s foreign minister recently called for the establishment of a European Union army; do you agree with the idea?
It is both a dangerous and immoral idea: Dangerous, because you cannot have an army without an agreed mechanism to command it.
Who would decide where to deploy this army, or where it might fight?
Immoral, because Ireland asking its young men and women to fight and die without the explicit consent of the Irish Government would be the end of our sovereignty in any meaningful way.
Would you describe European Union sentiment in Ireland as very bad, bad, good, very good, or excellent?
The polls say it is only “good”, but I think people are increasingly nervous with the direction.
They generally do not want to leave – but they don’t necessarily like where it is going in every respect, so that could change to bad very quickly.
Our previous MEPs made some very bad decisions which in turn has left the public feeling voiceless in the EU.
The EU Migration pact is just one recent example where I feel MEPs let Ireland down and did not represent the mood of the people on immigration.