Launching her campaign for the European Parliament for the Connacht/Ulster constituency, Dana Rosemary Scallon said she was running, to represent people whose values were often dismissed by the controlling consensus. The candidate described her campaign as driven by a passion for people and a respect for life at all ages. Above all, she said, policies in Brussels must be informed by the great diversity of needs in Connacht/Ulster, and must deliver, on the ground, within the constituency. Too many European programmes were conceived on a scale that made them inflexible and therefore less effective in an area with so many geographic and demographic contrasts as Connacht/Ulster.

"Economic development is vital," she said. "But I'll fight the thinking that starts and finishes with economic development, disallowing hopes and dreams, characteristics and traits, traditions and behaviours that don't fit into the economic model. The priority has to be to keep European thinking at human scale."