Dana officially gets her campaign for seat in Europe under way

Italy has Gina Lollobrigida, and Connacht-Ulster has Dana Rosemary Scallon. If politics is all about show business, both entertainers aim to liven up the forthcoming European election campaign.

And so it was in Galway city last night, where Dana hosted her official launch - although many would say that it took place on the airwaves, rather than on the hustings, last week.

In fact, some might date it back to the presidential race of 1997, when she polled just over 41,000 first preference votes over the constituencies that comprise Europe's Connacht-Ulster.

The former Eurovision singer, who spoke to an estimated 150 people in the Great Southern Hotel, said she was standing to represent people whose needs and values had been dismissed and ignored.

Referring to her presidential campaign, she hoped once again to revive confidence in local democracy and to allow those people who felt voiceless to air their concerns and difficulties.

She had no specific wish list - "there isn't room for people to be expounding new policies when there is still enough to be done", she told The Irish Times.

"Policies in Brussels must be informed by the great diversity of needs in Connacht-Ulster and must deliver on the ground within the constituency," she told the meeting. "We are all aware of the long overdue needs: investment in, and development of, employment and training, better infrastructure, support of indigenous industries and the part they play in the preservation of rural communities, education and health care, to name but a few."

Dana Rosemary Scallon - which is how she will appear on the ballot paper - has promised to take existing policies and make them work on a "human level". She acknowledged that economic development is vital, but said she would fight the kind of thinking which "starts and finishes" with that. "We must also develop as an ethical, honest and truly compassionate society, where financial considerations do not take priority over the basic needs of the community," she said in Galway.

She pledged "never to take no for an answer", to fight her constituents' corner if elected, and to be fully accountable at all times.

Pledging to be a "breath of fresh air" in the political system, she enters a competitive field, with Fianna Fail running sitting MEP Mr Pat "the Cope" Gallagher and junior minister Mr Noel Treacy; Fine Gael running its MEP, Mr Joe McCartin, alone after failing to secure a marketable second candidate; Labour has Mr Ger Gibbons and Sinn Fein has Alderman Sean MacManus.

There are also two Independents - Ms Marian Harkin, formerly of the Council for the West, and Ming the Merciless, who has already served time in his campaign to legalise cannabis.

Labour's candidate has called on Mr Treacy to state if he intends to continue in office while canvassing for a European parliament seat. Mr Treacy is hoping to take the seat vacated by retiring Fianna Fail MEP Mr Mark Killilea.