Senator Ronan Mullen speaks tonight in the Farnham.

Independent senator to speak in Farnham tonight


A public meeting is being held in the Farnham Arms Hotel tonight (Wednesday) by Independent Senator Ronan Mullen.
Senator Mullen will be speaking at 7.30pm as part of his tour of this Midland/North West constituency.
The European Election candidate says there is a need for “more political integrity across the system”.
“We are all responsible for that – I’m not pointing at individuals here – I saying that the system has become a little bit rotten and its needs to be reformed,” said Senator Mullen.
Setting out his stall for his campaign, he said there was a “healthy respect for dissenting voices”
He told The Anglo-Celt that he had been a long term critic of the bullying use of the party whip in Irish politics.
“That came to a head with the dilemma that Lucinda Creightan and her colleagues ran into last year.
“I just think we have a system in politics where local TDs and Senators have been completely weakened by a system where you are expected to do what the party bosses tell you all the time. The problem that it is creating is that people feel disconnected from their politicians. They are fine when they approach them about a local problem, but they feel that they don’t really have any power”, he said.
The Galwayman called for a less “starry-eyed” view of the EU.
“I think Irish politicians spend too much time worrying about what the EU thinks of us, and not enough time about how we can get the best out of the EU, or how we can stick up for our best interests at EU level.
“There is almost a sense where Irish politicians tend to get a bit starry eyed, the closer they get to the European Union, where I would see myself as a constructive critic of the EU, - valuing all that is good about it – the solidarity dimension of it, but not slow to say: ‘top guys, you have got to let us determine our own laws and culture aswell’,” he said.