DISABILITY rights advocate Kathy Sinnott chose a visit to Kerry as the ideal platform to announce her decision to contest the European elections in the South constituency and is aiming to become the first woman to represent Munster in Europe for more than 20 years.

The Cork woman started her campaign with an weeklong assault on the Kerry electorate taking in almost every corner of the county, including visits to Caherciveen, Killorglin, Beaufort, Killarney, Listowel, Tralee, Kenmare and Dingle.

She also took time out to visit St Mary of the Angels in Beaufort and the Kerry Parents and Friends facility in Killarney.

Speaking just before the final leg of her Kerry tour, Sinnott told The Kingdom that she received a very favourable reaction in Kerry “I’ve had a brilliant reaction - it’s very much like when I ran in Cork for the general election.

“The difference is that when I ran in Cork most people thought I couldn’t possibly win a seat but this time people see me as a viable candidate and nobody knows better than I do that every vote counts,” she added.

“My campaign is a mixture of a lot of elements from environmental issues, neutrality, disability of course, hospitals, protecting life and EU sceptics,” the EU candidate explained.

Among the issues already highlighted by the Cork woman during her Kerry campaign are the key problems of rural isolation and lack of funding for services.

Sinnott also hit out at the price of keeping a car on the road.

“These costs were brought in to dissuade people in Dublin from bringing their cars into the city but it makes no sense that someone living on the Dingle Peninsula, who needs a car to get to school or work, should have to pay the same amount,” Sinnott suggested.

Commenting on the new EU Constitution, the Cork activist said that she did not agree with the constitution as it was written.

“More and more control is going to Europe at the same time as less and less of what we want to say is being taken on board,” she claimed.

Sinnott promised voters in the county to change the way the entire MEP and sitting MEPs works.

“ MEPs are forgetting where they are from and the people they represent. Being an MEP is not like being a TD where you go to Leinster house to promote the needs of your area - sitting MEPs are promoting Europe in Munster and not the other way around,” she added.

“That won’t happen to me.

“I am not a politician and not in a party that is going to tell me to forget where I come from and why I am here,” she added.

Pointing out that the European Parliament cannot actually make law, Kathy Sinnott said that the main role of a successful MEP was that of an inside lobbyist.

“You are really wasting 12 seats when giving them to party politicians,” the Euro South candidate claimed.

“You need to know how to listen, how to fight,” she said.