Niall Boylan in fiery Newstalk interview with Kieran Cuddihy over European election bid

Niall Boylan has appeared on Newstalk this week to discuss his candidacy for the European election in the Dublin constituency for Independent Ireland.

Speaking to Kieran Cuddihy, the classic hits broadcaster laughed at how unusual it was to be sitting on the other side of the desk, answering the questions rather than asking them.

Cuddihy blazed in with the obvious question to Boylan, why does he want to be and MEP?

"I've been 30 years on the radio", Boylan said, "and my shows differ from yours, in the sense that I take callers on the air, I also talk to politicians, and I've been doing that for many many years, but it's mainly caller-based show.

"I worked it out actually, I calculated it because I was doing two shows a day on Irish Classic Hits Radio, and I worked it out that over the 30 years, I've probably taken 250,000 calls, and they range from people being happy, telling me something like a joyous event, to people being angry, to being frustrated, or people being devastated because they can't afford the food on their table.

"And as much as I'm a good empathetic ear, and I can listen to them, and at best I can send a letter off to whatever department because they can't get an appointment, and they'll always give me the same answer, that probably you get as well, sorry we can't comment on individual cases, I feel I'm not doing enough for them.

"So because I'm 30 years doing it, and people have said to me Niall, why don't you do something more, why don't you run for election?

"So I was approached by Independent Ireland, not so long ago, I initially turned it down, and kind of said 'I don't know if I'm ready for this, and then I started thinking about it and talked to my wife Karen, and I went 'I'll just go for it'

Cuddihy asked "is it daunting?"

"It is", Boylan replied, "it kind of feels like an uphill battle, in some sense, because I'm seeing a different side to the media, no disrespect, but I'm seeing a different side to the media, but that's OK, I expected that.

"You know what was really overwhelming?", he added, "the story was leaked, I was going to out it out the next day anyway.

"There was this whole thing, like a Gotcha moment, you know 'Oh he shouldn't of been on the radio...' I had no intentions of being on the radio. I knew the Coimisiún na Meán rules and the BAI rules in relation to that. Of course its up to every radio station to deal with that, whatever way they deem it necessary, but on Monday night when the story went out, I was overwhelmed by the positivity, 95% of the comments were good."

Cuddihy asked "Why Europe?"

"Because I think in Europe, you can get to the root of the problem.

"What happens is, you get directives from Europe, as we all know, and 75% of our legislations is based on European directives, it's usually four years later before anything happens over here, and then all of a sudden you've got TDs in the Dáil debating an issue that was signed over for by MEPs four years ago."

Giving an example, Niall goes on to speak about the EU Migration Pact, 

"We had MEPs in this country who disappear for four and a half years, and I find it quite offensive to the voters, they disappear for four and half years, they turn up four and a half years later, to open a shop or cut a ribbon, just to get your votes again, but while they're over there, they're like the best boys and girls in the class, they put there hand up for everything. 

"And that's not what the European common market was originally designed for, it was meant to be countries working together whereas now we're seeing what's almost like a dictatorship, and your seeing all these European MEPs just putting there hands up. But I think its really going to change."

"In what way is it a dictatorship?", Cuddihy asks.

"Look what we're sending over, they're all woke, you can disagree with that if you want", Boylan replied.

"But that's a different criticism other than a dictatorship", Cuddihy adds, "that's like saying I don't like who the Irish people have voted for, and that's a different criticism."

"I just feel that there is a huge amount of pressure on these MEPs to bring in laws,", Boyland says, "we saw what happened in Brussels last week, I'm not talking about the extreme and the right wing, but Nigel Farage and Viktor Orban wanted to have a talk and every hotel they went to it was closed down, so much so that the police were called to stop the event from happening, and this is what happens in the European Parliament as well, debate, just like it is in the Dáil here, is shut down, for example, recently Mattie McGrath wanted to talk about immigration, he wasn't allowed have the debate, you're accused of being right wing, you're accused of being racist,

"Look at the time they're given to discuss an important piece of legislation this country will ever see, we're handing away our sovereignty, our control over our own immigration laws, which are pretty good laws by the way, really robust legislation, they're handing that over to the European Union, and it's allowed a half an hour? Are the people really being informed about it?

"We're being told its some sort of wonderful package that's going to make a difference...everything that's in that, we can do ourselves we don't need permission from Europe to put reception centres at Dublin airport we don't need permission to have a fast track system to process people quicker, we don't need that, we should be doing that right now.

"We have a Minister for Justice who doesn't even know her own figures at the moment. They've lost control of the situation."

Cuddihy says "Whether you disagree with aspects of it, there is a common approach, you talked about the purpose, the aim of the European Economic Community initially and then the single market and then the European Union as its descendant, is that not working together?"

"When it comes to the free movement of people in Europe, we democratically voted for that in a referendum, mind you it took two referendums, we knew what we were getting into and I don't think we have a problem with that."

"Did we not vote for this in Lisbon?", said Cuddihy.

"We didn't really, we didn't vote for what we see at the moment which is just a free for all and people being treated inhumanely, stacked up in tents", Boylan replied.

"There were people who campaigned who said the Lisbon referendum was exactly what we were voting for. At no point did we suggest that we were voting for open borders and that's essentially what we have at the moment."

"Where do we have open borders?", Cuddihy asks.

"I'll come back to that in a second", said Boylan, "in this country, and I want to make it abundantly clear, diversity is the key, its our strength, and people mix this argument up all the time.

"I hear politicians do that 'oh what about the hospitals and the hospitality industry, we need people', of course we do and they benefit our economy wonderfully and greatly and I love diversity in Ireland.

"I think Ireland is such a wonderful country and Dublin is such a wonderful city but we cant have a situation where it becomes a free for all and it has become a free for all.

"When we see things like out of 7000 people only 3 were deported, and these were people who were refused asylum, there has to be a safe country to send people back to we have to have a policy, and we do have a policy, but for some reason our Minister for Justice doesn't believe she can implement these laws, and if the laws are not adequate they're our laws lets change them!

"During Covid, in what we considered as an emergency, this is an emergency, change the laws!"

"You being in Europe is going to do what?", Cuddihy asks.

"Firstly the EU migration pact will change over time, of course every year that going to change, a quota on the amount of people we let in will have to change, those laws will have to change , they will be adapted over time, I want to be there for that.

"I may not be able to stop the EU Migration Pact, although I think every person should talk to their local td about that, I wont be able to stop that, but I wouldn't have said yes to it in the first place like all our MEPs did apart from two.

"There will be other pieces of legislation like that and other directives in the EU and I want to be part of it."

Cuddihy then questioned Boylan on his website wherein he states he wants to make changes to modular housing and Government funding for NGOs, neither of which have anything to do with MEPS, Cuddihy points out. 

"It's like your asking people to elect you to the school board to fix the pot holes", Cuddihy says.

"If you're part of a political party, you stand for common sense on all these issues for example housing", says Boylan.

"But these are specifically yours", Cuddihy replies.

"Of course!", Boylan says, "and I want people to know who I am, if they think I'm tough on crime."

"But when it comes to Europe you're a single issue candidate", Cuddihy states.

"Absolutely, but do you think I don't make a difference?", says Boylan.

"But when I go on to your website", Cuddihy says, "It's got four issues, its got immigration its got NGOs, it's got housing and it's got law and order, are you accepting that three of those are irrelevant in this campaign?"

"No", Boylan replies.

"You just said you were a single issue candidate".

"I never said that, absolutely not", Boylan says emphatically, "I care about a lot more and I've said it to you three times in the last 15 minutes, that immigration is not the only thing I want to talk about, there are so many other things."

"But what have the things on your website got to do with Europe?"

"I just mentioned the Habitat Directive, that is something that affects us greatly in this country, where we want to move where we want to progress.

"Clontarf is in a really bad situation at the moment, but again the habitat directive stops planning on many occasions because there might be a rare spider living somewhere.

"So all of those things are handled on a European level that affects planning, that affects housing. The reason why I talk about things like climate or housing is because I want people to know who I am and what I stand for."

"But we don't have a housing crises because of rare spiders."

"I'm not suggesting we do have planning issues because of rare spiders. Agriculture is also a huge issue."

"Can you actually answer the questions I'm asking rather than the ones I haven't asked you yet", Cuddihy says frustrated, "building more modular housing, what has that got to with the European Union?

"You're missing the point here", Boylan says, "for somebody to vote for someone, for someone to represent them on things that may come up over the next four or five years, while I'm there, I want them to understand and the type of person that I am.

"And there is legislation, as you know most of our legislation comes from European directives anyway, and that could be in relation to planning, could be in relation to crime, all of those things. So the reason I say those things on the website is for people to understand who I am."

"Would you not be better off running for the Dáil", Cuddihy asks.

"The Dáil is a wonderful idea too, but in saying that, I believe I could do a lot more in Europe.

Cuddihy ends the interview by saying that any one who throws their hat in the ring is to be commended.