If there is one European representative taking particular delight this week at the Government's dilemma over the Nice Treaty vote, it is the Connacht-Ulster Independent MEP, Ms Dana Rosemary Scallon.
Ms Scallon was one of three of Ireland's 15 MEPs to call for a No vote - the others being the Green MEPs, Ms Patricia McKenna and Ms Nuala Ahern. Unlike the Greens, she campaigned on issues of sovereignty, the negative aspects to enlargement (such as the impact on the CAP of 2.2 million Polish farmers) and her firm belief that Nice represents a step towards a European constitution - and consequent legalisation of abortion.
Her stance, which was described as "misinformed" last week by critics such as fellow MEP Mr Proinsias De Rossa, was out of step with her alliance in the European Parliament. She says she notified the group, consisting of the European People's Party, Christian Democrats and European Democrats, of her intent to support the No campaign. Just a week before the poll, she published a position paper with the support of 57 other independent councillors, TDs and senators, including Mr Tony Gregory and Senator David Norris.
Ms Scallon is convinced that the Nice Treaty could pave the way for a European constitution which could allow for abortion here. In an interview with The Irish Times last week, before the vote, she also expressed suspicion about the timing of the Nice referendum. "We have 18 months to ratify this, yet there seemed to be an unseemly rush."
The Government's promised referendum on abortion had not yet been called, she pointed out. "I believe the delay in holding it, and the rush to approve Nice, need to be seriously questioned."
Was she suggesting that the Government was trying to sidestep the issue, by handing ultimate responsibility over to Europe? "Well, I wonder if an abortion referendum would matter afterwards, if the Nice Treaty was approved" she commented.
"If we agree to the Treaty of Nice, we politically endorse a Charter of Fundamental Rights, declared by the European heads of state in Nice last December. There is nothing to stop that becoming legally, rather than politically, binding. That charter can be used to bring abortion into Ireland through the European Court of Justice, and we will be helpless."
The Connacht-Ulster MEP is at pains to stress that "family values" are not her only interest, and that she had been elected in 1999 to deal with a wide range of issues affecting the sprawling Connacht-Ulster constituency.
She finds life as an MEP very rewarding, but is very concerned about the democratic deficit. "It seems to me sometimes in Europe that there is a blueprint. Reading back on Adenauer and Schuman declarations, it was always the intention to have a Europe which was a world power, economically and politically. If anything, I see it as a Europe of little steps.
"You take the little step, but it is the big step coming in that is the killer. A Europe that no longer needs the United States as an ally is very worrying," she warned.
There has been speculation over the past year about Ms Scallon's political ambitions at home. Last November, reports in The Sunday Tribune and VIP magazine quoted her as confirming that she would run for the Dail, and that she might declare her candidature for the Galway West five-seater. However, last week she said she was "still looking at it".
"There is probably an opportunity now that there has never been before, but the question has to be - do you feel you can make a relevant difference? I will be investigating," she said. Although she lives in Oranmore, Co Galway, and has been very active in commenting on local issues in the Galway region, she said that she had not yet identified any one constituency.
Still best known as the winner of the Eurovision song contest for Ireland in 1970, Ms Scallon is a mother of four and a skilled communicator. She used the experience gained in the US - working with EWTN, the Catholic cable network - to poll 176,000 first-preference votes in the 1997 presidential election. Two years later, she defied all expectations in the European elections.
She has consistently denied receiving financial support from the US, and did so again last week. "I wish I did!" she laughed. She is now on a general European salary with expenses. Her No to Nice campaign was financed from her own resources, a spokesman said.
"I certainly fund-raise wherever I can and I won't turn funding away. There are many concerned people in the United States who have a deep love of this country."
Recalling the first time this issue was raised during the 1997 presidential election, she laughed. "They couldn't decide whether I was an evangelical Baptist or a mouthpiece for the church or an ayatollah."
Ms Scallon says she has been approached by several political parties, without specifying which, to run as a candidate in the next election. "If I could find a party where the leadership and the grass roots were in harmony, and where they truly upheld the Constitution of this country, it would be an awful lot easier for me. But the political leadership has left their grass roots behind."
She gave nothing away in relation to reported plans for a new political party, espousing family values. However, the Dail and the EU were "like Siamese twins", she said, and there was a need for greater harmony between both, and a need to uphold the Constitution. "I am not getting at any particular person or any particular party, but none of the parties in power has defended the Constitution of this country."
As a member of the European Parliament's regional policy, transport and tourism committee, she is concerned about the state of the road network.
She questions the lack of priority given by the National Roads Authority to the north-west. "There are levels of deprivation elsewhere in the State, but it is so concentrated in this region," she said. "I lived in Alabama, where the dirt tracks were better than some of the roads here."
She commented: "You look at the National Development Plan and draw a line from Galway over, and what's above it? They've annexed off Donegal.
"What are they planning? Or is it part of this great scheme that this would be an awful nice place to keep us as primitive as possible, so that it will be one of those holiday spots in Europe where people can come and see how you used to farm? And we'll keep the roads pretty basic because people enjoy that as a change.
"There's politics, and there's good politics. And good politics is taking care of your people. It's not as if helping the west is going to hurt the east."
