Mark Killilea has no doubts whatsoever about who should replace Pee Flynn as EU Commissioner. The FF-er from Connaught/Ulster is the only MEP retiring so, as his former colleagues trek around, he can afford to say what he likes and he told a lunch of the Association of European Journalists in Dublin this week that Brian Cowen is the man for the job.
Would Killilea like the post himself? "I would love to re fuse it. It should have nothing to do with by-elections. We have got to get a tough cookie; it is not a place for a non-politician. The man I would pick personally is Brian Cowen. He has the ideal metabolism. But we had a great commissioner. He brought his budget from 4.5 billion to 9.5 billion and not a penny out of place. He was a man who walked into the Women's Rights Committee, with Nel van Dijk in the chair and I the only male there, and said `Now girls'. I thought the house would collapse and the shaking chandelier would fall. He was a great commissioner."
Parliament was now becoming a powerful organ and it was important and vital that we put 15 serious people in as MEPs, particularly to direct where the money was spent. In the outgoing parliament, Killilea says, we had only 13 Irish working together, as two from one party opted out. There was nothing wrong with the parliament assuming such great power, as long as we were prepared to work to get our share of the structural funds. "The national interest has be taken into account. We have to ringfence the money, if we do not do it in the next 12 years it is gone."
He suggests that our 15 MEPs, regardless of ideology, should meet once a month under the auspices of a minister, probably from Foreign Affairs, to agree what they wanted for the country. "We have to co-ordinate and use our influence. The power in the parliament is at a dangerous level and we must tap into it quickly."
Killilea said he loved every minute of his work in Europe, but he hated the travel - "when I hear an airplane now I put my finger in my ear. It is the end of an era in my house. We have been in politics since 1927. I have eight children and I wouldn't let one of them into it today. It is a sad state of affairs that people's private life is exposed every Sunday."