Outgoing Green MEP Grace O'Sullivan questions running of 'celebrity candidates' in EU elections

She said she had grave concerns social media companies and large profitable lobbying firms were driving simple narratives on very complex issues that often result in knee-jerk political reactions, while the existential threat of climate change looms large over the planet.

“Social media is driving narratives, it’s driving algorithms, and it is selecting cohorts of people and creating this narrow perception of different things that are going on in the world. Because whether we like it or not, the biggest existential crisis facing humanity is climate change,” she said.

She made her comments at the Cork count centre in Nemo where she was eliminated with 69,197 votes after count 19.

In a statement, she said: "Forty-plus years of campaigning through rough seas and calm waters, headwinds and tailwinds, good days and bad. The fight continues."

Speaking to the Irish Examiner, she said she just had not been as transfer friendly as in 2019.

“People have other things on their minds and that concerns me because as an ecological party and as an ecologist myself, climate change has not gone away, by any doubt — my concern is that Government is not getting that message across. And I would say all of the government — not just the Green Party,” she said.

“The Green Party is the one that is very often blamed for things — say when water quality goes down, people look to the Greens because we have ambitions. But we are part of a coalition and those three parties are responsible for public services, climate health and water quality — all of them together.

And that’s why I’m concerned about Ireland without strong voices in Europe.

“Ciaran Cuffe and I, we were hard working, we were active on legislation and without the Irish Greens at the table, we will lose ground in terms of the environmental reach.” 

The daughter of a dairy farmer, she said she had never been afraid to meet people to discuss difficult topics such as the nitrates derogation, and that she attended several IFA meetings and was “pretty much booed off the stage” by 200 farmers on one stage when she explained there were no simple ‘yes or no’ answers to the issue.

“I explained that my issue was the health of the water courses, for public health, for biodiversity,” she said.

“If the farmers, and generally it’s more intensive dairy farmers in the south-east of the country, if they want to keep going with production at a high cost to the environment then they have to prove that they can find the balance and strike a balance.

“And if they can show that they can use fertilisers or nitrates without a negative impact, then of course that is a consideration.” 

She believes that approach during the election campaign, and her decision to publicly criticise other candidates for their climate denial stance, might not have done her “any favours” when it came to transfers.

“There might have been a bit of a backlash to some of the inconvenient truths that I was putting out there,” she said.

“I have always been someone who has come out and met people. I have always sat with people, I listen, I hear grievances, concerns and then try to find solutions — to work with people.

Sometimes the allegation towards the Greens in general, that we’re disconnected, about our ideology, I think that is unfair and unwarranted, in my case anyway, because I have always been someone who worked with people. 

She said it would be interesting to analyse voting and transfer trends and assess the impact of “celebrity candidates” on the election.

“If you’re running a candidate for the European Parliament, do you go with celebrities or do you go with people who have competencies and experience in the job?” she said.

“And in my case, I feel that I really worked very hard work with and for people over the last number of years and I think it’s a pity not only for me and my family, but also a pity when you lose people who actually have the experience in Europe, who have done a pretty good job.” 

The main parties, she said, ran good campaigns, with Fianna Fáil candidate Cynthia Ní Mhurchú also costing her votes, and she felt when many voters did not know who they were voting for even 48 hours before polling day, they probably tended to “just stick with what you know”.

“I don’t want to sound bitter because I genuinely wish whoever gets the seats does the best for our country and for Europe — without a doubt that is my wish for those who are elected,” she said.