Alan Kelly - Spokesperson on Health - Spokesperson on Jobs, Enterprise & Innovation - Member of Public Accounts Committee

National Conference 09

Posted by Alan Kelly on March 27, 2009 at 10:57 PM

With PES Leader Martin Schulz MEP at National Conf

Our National Conference was held over the weekend in Mullingar or 'Penrose' country as we like to call it after our local TD there. It was an excellent conference and I was highly impressed by the volume of new and young people I met at it. It was also a confernece that showed that my party is the party of values. Values that have stood the test of time and are more relevant now than ever before.

It was also a conference of ideas. So many motions were excellently researched and showed that there is a bright future out there if we could just as a country invest in our own creativity and capacity.

The conference endorsed the 21st Century report which I was proud to support. I was one of the parliamentary representatives on this committe and I felt that the party needed to adopt the report in order to modernise and support our party leader. It was supported overwhelmingly.

As ususal Eamon Gilmore gave a fantastic speech as party leader and showed why he is the most outstanding politician in Ireland at the moment. It was a pleasure to be asked to introduce him on this occasion. I have to say that it something I really enjoyed and I would readily do it again. It is a tricky shift, getting the balance right, when you have to prepare for live television transmission, but I felt comfortable on the set.

It was a slso a pleasure to meet the PES Leader in the Parliament who spoke at the conference, Martin Schulz MEP. He is a very decent fella and I had a good chat with him. He gave me an insight into how the PES were hoping to make significant gains in this year's EU election.

It was a busy conference for me. I had to speak five times on Saturday; on tourism, health, finance, party affairs and then introducing Eamon. I had a chat with Susan O'Keefe whom I am delighted is standing for us in the North East Euro constituency. She is an excellent candidate.

Finally, it was a time to meet and chat with the many, many friends I have in the Labour party across Ireland. People I have the height of respect for.