Question to:	Nessa Childers
Issue:	Culture
19.05.2009 Question sent by ¡n Ó	Nessa, just a quick thank you for being the only politician who actually put the fadaí on my name in your election mail (For legal reasons we are not able to put our townlands in Irish yet). It was refreshing! I´d trust you. Go n-éirí an t-ádh leat! I want Ireland to finally be a healthier, more European place and to look beyond Britain for its policy inspiration to Scandinavia (for environmental policy) and France (for health policy), for instances. That progressive intellectual independence is sorely lacking to date. Will you be willing to advocate policies which have been used successfully in continental Europe and which may benefit us? You will probably be a lone voice, but there are a large amount of people who would love somebody who is strongly if not fully intellectually supportive of the socially and environmentally progressive policies in use on the continent.
20.05.2009 Reply from Nessa Childers	Thanks for the question, ¡n. If elected MEP, I will be sitting with the Socialist Group (Party of European Socialists), which includes the Social Democrats from Sweden, Finland and Denmark, the Parti Socialiste from France, the SPD from Germany and other progressive parties from across Europe. Indeed, our European Party Leader at present is the former Danish Prime Minister, Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, who is famous for introducing the ´flexicurity´ model in Denmark in the 1990s. Being a member of a group of such progressive parties from across the EU means that I will have access to those experiences to which you refer from other countries. Ireland must learn from the past experiences of our European colleagues - both positive and negative - so that we build on their successes and avoid their mistakes. Regards, Nessa
Source:	http://www.candidatewatch.ie/nessa_childers-30374-22154.html