MEP candidate Niall Boylan: ‘Anyone who disagrees is labelled far-right’ | BreakingNews.ie

Niall Boylan, who is running for the European Parliament in the Dublin constituency, has called for a “fair immigration policy”, adding that “the far-right label is just a way to silence people”.

Mr Boylan hosted a popular talkshow on Classic Hits FM, and has left the radio station to run in Friday’s European election.

Immigration has become a central issue in both the local and European elections. Speaking to BreakingNews.ie, Mr Boylan said “anyone who disagrees with the Government is called far-right, that’s just a way of silencing people”.

Mr Boylan is one of three MEP candidates running as part of Independent Ireland.

He is predicting a “dramatic change back to the centre. The European Parliament has been too left, too long”.

When asked about anti-immigration activists who have been involved in the burning of buildings earmarked for asylum seekers, Mr Boylan said there should be a “distinction between that criminal element and people with genuine concerns”.

“There will always be agitators, who will be violent and involved in criminal activity, directly involved in burning buildings. I don’t condone any violence, but what’s happened is we have turned into a divisive society. That’s not the people’s fault, it’s the Government’s fault for allowing it to get to this point. They now realise it’s wrong.

“This time 12 months ago, if you suggested what the Government are doing now, which is getting tough on immigration, you’d have been called the far-right.

“There are different levels of it. You have people right of centre who may just be conservative. I consider myself a conservative, some people might call me right of centre, but I’d be quite left on other things. Just because you put a label on somebody, that doesn’t mean it’s what they are. For example, I voted yes to marriage equality… does that make me a lefty? No. You can’t lump everybody into the same bracket.

“Just because I have a view on a fair immigration policy, doesn’t mean I’m the type of person who would go crazy at a protest or something like that, because I don’t.”

Mr Boylan has accused politicians of being “too woke”, and he feels this is something people are tired of.

“Call it wokeism, whatever it is, it does alienate people.” On this subject, he cited the no votes in the family and care referendums as a defeat for Government.

Ask any government minister right now to define a woman and they’d be terrified, absolutely terrified.

“Ask any government minister right now to define a woman and they’d be terrified, absolutely terrified, they’d dither and wouldn’t answer the question because it might upset somebody. It’s quite simple, and if you can’t define what a woman is, how can you represent them?

“The idea of taking the word ‘mother’, ‘woman’, out of the Irish Constitution, shows you the massive disconnect they have, that they believed the people of Ireland wanted that.

“As soon as the results came out, I think Ivana Bacik from Labour was the first to come out and say ‘we didn’t agree with the wording’. She was walking around with a big campaign poster two days before saying vote yes. The same with Sinn Féin, ‘we didn’t agree with the wording’, they told everyone to vote yes too!”

“I only finished up with the radio show five weeks ago, and there was always this connection between the people and the government, even though they disagreed with each other now and again. But over the last five years I’ve noticed, and I’ve spoken to 250,000 callers in 30 years, over the last five years, what the people are saying, and the politicians who I interview are saying, are two completely different things.

I think I offer common sense, people like that I’m not politically correct.

“I think politicians have completely lost touch with what people want. Don’t get me wrong, the people are not always right, they can say ‘we don’t want to pay tax’ etc, but most of the time the people are right.

“If you’re in power you should have a sense of what’s wrong and what’s right for the people. You earn more than them, and might not struggle as they do, but you should have an idea of how their lives are. They’ve stopped listening to people. That’s the problem.

“I think I offer common sense, people like that I’m not politically correct. I’m not a bad person, but I’m not politically correct, and I will not say something just because it appeases people, I just tell people what I think.”

A Sunday Independent/Ireland Thinks opinion poll at the weekend showed a seven-point slump for Sinn Féin to 22 per cent, equal with Fine Gael. Independent/other was the most popular selection ahead of Friday’s election, on 23 per cent.

Mr Boylan said Sinn Féin are “basically part of the government because they haven’t been a great opposition”.

“They’re saying things they’ve never said before [on immigration]. It’s similar to the recent referendum. They were the ones in the family and care referendum saying they would re-run it if they didn’t get the result they wanted, they suddenly backed out of that because they knew that the public didn’t want that.

“Like the rest of the political parties, they’re not listening to the people. I think the Government and Sinn Féin, who are basically part of the government because they haven’t been a great opposition over the last five years, I think they realise now they have been disconnected from the people. It’s too late, and the people have seen through them.

“From the reaction we’ve seen on the street, people who were formerly Sinn Féin voters or voters who wanted change, are saying ‘we’ll give you our vote, an independent our vote, because we’re not giving it to Sinn Féin anymore’.”

Mr Boylan said farmers have been “thrown to the wolves”, adding that he would not have voted for the Nature Restoration Law which was recently voted in by MEPs.

“The idea that you would put all these barriers in front of farmers, one of the biggest industries in this country. Farmers are getting older, their kids don’t want to get into farming because the money isn’t good enough now, and we’ve put more barriers and said ‘the EU will come up with funding at some point, but we don’t have it now’.

“You can’t do that to agriculture, you can’t do that to farmers. The idea that we would sign up to take cheap beef from Brazil or Argentina while we cull cows in Ireland just seems bonkers. It’s all part of the green deal, appeasing these alarmists.

“I am an environmentalist and I do believe in being kind to the planet, but you can’t go into panic mode and start destroying your own economy for the sake of it. Farmers have been the backbone of our economy for decades.”

Mr Boylan said he has a “gut feeling this election will be quite historical”, adding that he believes it will be worse for the government parties than opinion polls suggest.

“While the polls are showing independents are up, I think it will be higher. I think people have lost faith. I’m shocked that Barry Andrews, Regina Doherty, even Sinn Féin, are polling so high for the Europeans.

“I’m shocked that people would still vote Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Sinn Féin. The Green Party will be annihilated, I think, but I’m shocked people are still voting for the establishment parties after what they’ve done to the country in the last five years.

“Then again, there are people who religiously vote for the same parties. I do see a massive swing in this election and I think the Government are extremely worried. You can see that in the decisions they are making, particularly around immigration.”

He concluded: “Generally speaking, because I’ve been on the show for so long, I think my opinions tally with average people, and I think I can represent them well.

“I’ve spoken to people from all walks of life with different problems. Their children leaving the country because they can’t afford to stay, I recently spoke to a woman crying her eyes out because she has terminal cancer and can’t get an appointment.

“These are real people. I felt I couldn’t do enough for them by answering a phone call anymore.  Now I think maybe I can do something to make their lives better. Maybe something I do in Europe will have an impact to make their lives a bit better.”