A KILDARE man is seeking the Fianna Fail nomination to stand in the Midlands North West constituency in the forthcoming European Elections.

Seanán Ó Coistín is from Kilcock but works as an Irish proof reader in the publications office of the European Union in Luxembourg. He proofreads the Official Journal of the European Union and other documents in Irish and English. This means, he says, he is familiar with the work of the EU and as such is a suitable candidate for the European elections.

Seanán left Ireland in June 2012 to take up his job in Luxembourg. As Ireland is the EU member state that has suffered the most emigration in the last five years (more than 300,000 people have left), Seanán feels that it is especially important that an MEP from Ireland should stand up for migrants and challenge the anti-immigrant views of the far right in the European Parliament.

Over the years Seanán has been involved with different organisations including being a member of the committee of Burma Action Ireland and being a director of Show Racism the Red Card. During Aung San Suu Kyi’s visit to Ireland in June 2012, he was responsible for media relations for Burma Action Ireland.

Prior to working with the European Commission in Luxembourg, Seanán worked as the public relations officer for the Spiritan Asylum Services Initiative (SPIRASI) in Dublin on a JobBridge scheme placement. He spoke up for the most maligned type of migrants, asylum seekers, during a recession. From his time spent working with Spirasi he has a strong understanding of the asylum procedures in the EU, and as part of his focus on human rights, would like to see fairer treatment of migrants. Seanán has a degree in history and politics from the University of Limerick. Most of the subjects he studied were European politics and history. As part of his degree, he studied in Rotterdam, the Netherlands where he took a class in how to lobby the EU in Brussels. The teacher of the class, Rinus van Schendelen wrote the bible on how to lobby the EU, ‘Machiavelli in Brussels: The Art of Lobbying the EU’ which was a class textbook.

Supporting job creation and being a champion of human rights and justice are the two themes that he wishes to work on as an MEP. From being a supporter of human rights’ campaigns, an anti-racism activist and as someone who had to leave his country to find work, he wants to challenge what he describes as the “ puke politics of the Far Right in the European Parliament”.

“Ireland is going to have one less MEP after the European elections in May therefore it is very important that  people who know about the EU are elected. I am putting myself forward as a candidate as I work in the European Commission in Luxembourg. As part of my work I read official EU documents all the time.
“If elected I want to focus on helping people get jobs and to be a champion of human rights. As someone who had to move abroad to find work, I know exactly how difficult it is to find work and why migrants need to be treated fairly. I want to challenge the puke politics of the far right who will oppose migration into Europe. I am very disappointed to see the National Independent Party in Ireland calling for immigration to be curtailed. I will readily challenge them about this topic.”
If elected, Seanán pledges to only take half (€45,000) of the current MEP salary per year, excluding legitimate travel and work expenses.” Being elected to the European Parliament is not about drawing a big salary but about making a positive impact helping others.”