<p>Mairead McGuinness is a Vice-President of the European Parliament and a MEP from the European People's Party. She belongs to Ireland’s centre-right Fine Gael party, which rules in a coalition with the Labour party. </p><br />Mairead McGuinness welcomes the result of the recent referendum in Ireland, which legalised gay marriage in a world first. "In the past we had laws that criminalised homosexuality, but we have come a long journey in terms of realising that this is not us and them, this is us", she says.<br />On the subject of Ireland’s economy, she says "there is a recovery, it is not uniform and it’s not as strong as I want it to be, but my goodness, when I look back to where we were in 2011, we are a different country”.<br />Regarding British Prime Minister David Cameron’s bid to hold a referendum on EU membership, she wants more “detail” on what he is proposing. “I think Europe needs a better deal”, she adds. “I think Europe has taken quite a battering, in the last 5 years in particular, I think many of our citizens are disillusioned and we need to reinvigorate a spirit of what the European Union is about, by connecting better the issues we deal with - even in this Parliament - with people on the ground”.<br />Presented by Christophe Robeet<br />Produced by Isabelle Romero<br /><br />Visit our website:<br />http://www.france24.com<br /><br />Like us on Facebook:<br />https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English<br /><br />Follow us on Twitter:<br />https://twitter.com/France24_en
