IRELAND South MEP Grace O’Sullivan recently visited Limerick City to meet constituents for the first time since Covid restrictions were lifted. MEP O’Sullivan met with various community groups including Castleconnell Tidy Towns, Maigue Rivers Trust and toured the city via boat, led by skipper Pat Lysaght. Local Green Party Councillors Seán Hartigan and Sasa Novak guided Ms O’Sullivan on her tour, linking their work on Limerick City and County Council and sharing news of other campaigns in the region.
MEP O’Sullivan noted how inspiring and motivating it has been to be able to get out and about the constituency, saying: “For the past two years my work has primarily focused on legislating in Brussels and Strasbourg, as we were not allowed to physically meet with people across the 12-county Ireland South constituency. I’m quite proud of the work myself and my team have carried out during this time.
“As a first-time MEP, I was the Lead Rapporteur on the incoming 8th Environmental Action Programme legislation, which is going to have a real impact in the coming decade. As an ecologist, I was very proud to have negotiated the inclusion of soil quality monitoring in this EAP, which hasn’t been legislated for on a European level previously”.
She continued: “I personally get a lot of energy and inspiration from meeting with people, I was a bit of a late-comer to politics and although I do enjoy my legislative work, it is the human connection and listening to the work of community groups and trying to help individuals that fuels my fire. We have just two years left of this term of office and I plan to do as much work in Europe and on the ground as possible, and there is a great team of Greens here in Limerick that I look forward to liaising with. It was a pleasure to get this constituency tour started in Limerick.”
Grace O’Sullivan is an MEP for Ireland South, sitting with the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament. She is a full member of the European Parliament Committee on Fisheries (PECH) and also the Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI).
