BA Sociology & History NUIM 1998, MA Modern History RUG 2003 (National University of Ireland, Maynooth (IRL) & Groningen State University (NL) respectively). University English-language tutor (4 yrs. Groningen University) Netherlands Union of Journalists
Occupation
Journalist, translator & interpreter reporting in the Netherlands' broadcast press on European-Affairs desk. Formerly news-presenter with Finance Television News Europe (FTV).
What are your thoughts on how the latest proposed amendments to the Irish Firearms Acts - as contained in the Criminal Justice (Misc.Provisions) Bill 2009 - contravene the EU directive on Firearms (91/477/EEC) by requiring all Irish firearms owners to only purchase ammunition or firearms from Irish registered firearms dealers instead of the current (and in force since 1964) laws that allow them to purchase from any registered firearms dealer in the EU so long as the appropriate paperwork is in place?
05.06.2009
Reply from Noel McCullagh
03 June 2009 @ 15:53
Hello ,
Where as I do not know as much about this subject as you (there are so many), I can say this.
Were I to vote on such an issue, it would be in Brussels. I can assure you that I would read thoroughly through legislation and discuss that with interested parties on the ground.
My thoughts on the free movement of goods and services means that I would tend toward the second scenario that you outline in your question, i.e. that people should be able to purchase goods and wares (ammunition for hunting or shooting, et cereta) provided that they have in their possession all of the correct documents that are required under the existing act in force.
I am disappointed with the transposition of EU law into the Irish Statute books, and it is my consistent impression that the delays in this process are caused by the Central Party in Dublin requiring time to set up the various companies and so forth, that then proceed to benefit economically once the regulations are transposed to the Irish law books.
As a journalist covering the release of EU legislation, and one who (by means of being an Irishman) keeps a close watch on how the central party in Dublin "use" and "apply" those laws in practise : I see first hand the dynamics that are at work in Ireland in this regard.
I hope and trust that this answers your question. Could you let me know if I have left something out that is important to you ... you who feel strongly about this issue. May I ask : what is your opinion and do you own a rifle yourself ? What is the price difference between purchasing goods that fall under this Irish Statute in the UK and/or in France?
My prerogative is that the people in the area, those involved on the ground, are the most informed groups when it comes to very specific matters such as this one.
It will be my policy to listen to that knowledge, (and thereby hope to take most of it in as it is very often highly expert information depending on the citizens area of special expertise) , and after listening to how policies will effect those operating "on the ground" , I will act accordingly in the interests of those people.
After all, it is they who I shall be representing here in the Benelux~!
*Best wishes ,
Noel *
PS :Sorry for the late reply. My campaign is somewhat slow this week as I had to leave my home due to threats on my life.
Agriculture
27.05.2009
Question from
Dear Mr. McCullagh,
I am writing you in relation to animal welfare.
Our organisation was wondering if you could tell us why foie gras is being produced using gavage in Europe, many years after the practice was banned in the EU?
We would like to know if you have any plans to address this problem, and if you would also consider lobbying for a ban on the importation of foie gras in Ireland.
Thank you for your time, I look forward to your response.
Thanks for your email. I apologise for the late response but things have
been hectic here since I started to receive threats on my life.
My intention and my experience is that people in the area know best how they feel on specific issues. I work as a volunteer for the Dutch Foundation "Varkens in Nood"
(Pigs in Peril) www.varkensinnood.nl
Obviously I agree with you that force-feeding (aka Gavage) is unacceptable:
does it happen in the Republic of Ireland or in France. My experience working with animal
welfare organisations is that it is best and often most effective to concentrate on your own
"backyard" before pointing the finger at the neighbours garden.
In that respect, I would be far more concerned about Irish pig-produce being
sold on the international marketplace when that meat is contaminated with extremely high levels of cancer-causing toxins, than I would about a product coming in from abroad to Ireland that is not (essentially) a poisonous substance being passed off for human consumption.
Finally, I think your suggestion on ´banning´ the import into Ireland could be better met with a ban on the practise where it is currently occurring. If indeed there is a prohibition on this practice, then it is that law which MEPs need to push or have expanded in order to become effective.
An American man born in NYC who would later create themselves The Leader of Ireland, whose grandson is now a government minister in my country, once implemented a system of bans on produce from abroad which proved economically disastrous for the ordinary folk out on the countryside. Bans are not the right way to go, rules can be bent and regulations slipped through.
It´s the existing regulations that require sharpening : in order to prevent operators in the commercial meat-markets from sailing around them.
I hope this answers your questions.
Thanks again for your email and could you please send on everything you have
on this niche topic : there are so many to get through I would prefer to hear what the people I shall be representing have to say on these important issues about which they are experts in their own rite!
That is the strength of "*working together for a better European Union*"!
*Noel McCullagh,*
Candidate, North-West constituency,
European-Parliament elections June 5th, Ireland.
Landline Tel.: +31(0)20-881.70.63
Mobile Tel.: +31(0)6-381.44.965
Will you commit yourself publicly to legislation banning embryo destruction and preventing any regulatory body from rubber-stamping embryo destruction?
05.06.2009
Reply from Noel McCullagh
Dear Sean.
Thanks for your question. Excuses for the late reply, I wanted to really look into this question you posed carefully before answering you.
As I said in earlier answers and in my manifesto: I value information gathered from those with viewpoints on key issues.
On the question of committing myself to banning embryo destruction. Is that within my powers as an MEP? To have something banned? I´ve looked into this and there are already ´experiments´ ongoing. Another interesting thing I noticed is that there are companies advertising stem-cell treatment on Google sites! Pharma companies have been reproached by the FDA in the USA for such advertising : in this case the add seemed to suggest that stem-cell treatment was ´the best´ for the treatment of multiple sclerosis. Now I happened to be very skeptical of all of the would-be ´wonderous´ treatments that are on the marketplace, which are in fact treatments that have never been tested before. They are ´experimental´ and the experiments carried out to produce them are done in ´labatory´ conditions and at the cost of some manner of life form that is the ´subject´ of those tests. On that subject, yes: I agree that it is questionable to experiment on life forms, including the embryos that you mention in your question.
But, I would go one further than that. I would call for an end to the experimentations on the dying Irish in Waterford and Cork hospitals. These are ill people who are roped into so-called ´clinical trials´ at one privately-run and one publicly-run hospital.
The ´experimentations´ on the live Irish subjects is carried out as part of a ´clinical trial´. In these trials, patients with multiple sclerosis and cancer are experimented upon by a UK bioPharma corporation based in Sailsbury UK. The corporation is called GW Pharma, and it obtains a licence from the Irish minister of health and children and the IMB to commence the experimentations. Even though cannabis is ´illegal´ in Ireland, under a special section inserted into the Act by the minister, it is not illegal for the UK drugs company to bring in its own cannabis from the UK so that the experimentations may commence.
When people are extremely ill, the experimentations commence. At the conclusion of the experimentations, the data collected from the subjects remains the sole property of the UK Pharma Corporation.
Based on that information harvested from the dying Irish, there have been products brought onto the marketplace and even legalised in some Commonwealth countries for use in general medical practise (MS).
However, despite a great deal of harvesting on information from the Irish citizenry : the "cutting edge" treatments produced as a result of the cannabis-experimentations on the ill (and dying) Irish is not available to the Irish consumers and patients.
I suppose, if it ever were... the UK company would probably have no more subjects upon whom to test their cannabis wares and then there would be little requirement to pay the minister for another licence for another year.
This entire world of product-testing, cash licences and whatnot. It´s rather serious... when one considers that the Netherlands commenced developing cannabis-based treatments in their universities in the 1970s. Today, there are various products giving wonderful life-altering results; produced in Belgium and Netherlands and exported to Italia, Austria and Finland.
If there are already succesful products available : why is there a need to continue the experimentations on the dying Irish? www.independent.ie [last 5 paragraphs outline the processes mentioned above re: live testing experiments in Waterford and Cork hospitals.]
I hope that this sufficiently answers you question. Please contact me if
that is not the case.
