Dominic's Blog

The race is just starting for the European Elections of 2019. Parties across Europe are now in the process of choosing who to put forward as candidates for the European Parliament. Backroom staff have commenced the process of drafting European-wide manifestos. Another key issue for the parties is to decide on who will be the party’s lead candidate for the President of the Commission, the SpitzenKandidat. The current Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker, is the first Commission President to be chosen based on the SpitzenKandidat system. Introduced as part of the Lisbon Treaty, the Spitzenkandidat concept is that the European-wide political party which gains the highest number of seats at the European Parliamentary elections then has its lead candidate ratified as Commission President by the Union’s Heads of States. Last time around in 2014 the European Peoples Party (EPP) gained the highest number of seats in the European Parliament. Their Spitzenkandidat, Jean-Cla...

 It’s 50 years since 1968, one of the most turbulent years in the world’s recent history. It saw the Tet Offensive by the Viet Cong, the assassinations of the Reverend Martin Luther King and of Robert Kennedy, and the continuation of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. In Europe we saw the Prague Spring in what was then Czechoslovakia. All of these contributed to inspire the world’s oppressed to campaign for change. Closer to home it was a key year in the history of Northern Ireland. The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association organised its first march from Coalisland to Dungannon and then later that year held a second march in Derry. The marchers set out to highlight non-sectarian demands, such as the end of gerrymandering of constituency boundaries and better housing for all sections of the population. Tragically, subsequent events brought the north to a deeper, darker place for the following decades. It was only when all sides of the conflict saw the ...

Dear Brian Thank you for your letter in relation to Meath East, asking for my views on who should be the Labour Party Candidate for the next General Election. You have asked for responses by Friday 12th of January. Firstly can I say that it was a tremendous honour to represent the people of Meath and the Labour Party in this constituency, initially as a Councillor, then as a Senator and finally as a TD. It was a wonderful experience and one that will provide me with hugely enjoyable memories for the remainder of my life. It is now two years since the General Election. In that time I have had the opportunity to reflect on the type of representation required by the people of Meath, the needs of the local Party members, national party considerations and of course, my own wishes. I have concluded that all of these items would be best served if I step aside as the party candidate and allow another person to enter the fray and lead the fight for the Part...

Planning for the 2019 Europen Elections was a central part of this month’s PES Conference in Lisbon. Of particular importance were the discussions on choosing the joint candidate for President of the European Commission (the Spitzenkandidat") and the debate on how the UK seats in the parliament are divvied up, post Brexit. The legal basis for the Spitzenkandidat was put brought about by an amendment to the  Treaty on European Union  by the  Treaty of Lisbon , which came into force on 1 December 2009. The amendment added the wording "taking into account the elections to the European Parliament", so that Article 17.7 now included the wording: "Taking into account the elections to the European Parliament and after having held the appropriate consultations, the European Council, acting by a qualified majority, shall propose to the European Parliament a candidate for President of the Commission." In advance of the 2014 elections each of the main Europe...

Should the Irish & UK Labour Parties run candidates in the North of Ireland? That’s a question that we are asked regularly. It’s an issue which has been debated at party conferences both here and in the UK. I spoke to the UK Labour Party Conference two years ago on the issue. Up to now the view of both Labour Parties has against running candidates. We have a sister party in the north, the SDLP, and to field candidates against them was not something we wanted to do. Of course this approach has not been welcomed by the Northern Irish Labour Party (the NILP). They don't think their home is in the SDLP. As they pointed out in their recent pamphlet on the issue they consider the SDLP to be agnostic to trade union links, nationalist in terms of their community designation at Stormont and weak on the equality issues of a woman's right to choose and same-sex marriage. The SDLP response is that they are changing their position in relation to the above, and that NILP members...

  As Chair of the International Affairs Unit, I attended the Labour Party Annual Conference in Brighton in September. It was fresh and it was loud. I constantly heard people saying “this is my first conference”, a reflection of how much the party membership has grown in recent years. Of course, there were still many familiar and friendly faces, particularly from the Labour Party Irish Society (LPIS). We’ve worked closely together on various campaigns and over the years myself and other Irish members have crossed the sea to join with the LPIS to canvas for candidates such as Ken Livingstone, John McDonnell and Catherine West. In turn, LPIS members have done likewise. For instance, former LPIS Chair Conor McGinn, now Labour MP for St Helens, canvassed for me in Slane in 2011. This year the topic on everyone’s lips was Brexit. Brendan Howlin gave a number of well-received speeches about its impact on Ireland, including a barnstorming one at the LPIS Reception. The LPIS...