Nina Carberry on adjusting to life as an MEP and who she'd love to see as President

A top class jockey, a seven-time winner at Cheltenham, a judge on Ireland's Fittest Family, a published children's author and a former champion on Dancing with the Stars. Nina Carberry certainly doesn't do things in half measures. Elected as a Fine Gael MEP in last June's European Elections, she is quickly getting around her sprawling 15-county constituency that makes up the Midlands North West. It stretches from the very top of Donegal to the bottom of Laois, includes all of Connacht as well as Louth, Longford, Westmeath, Offaly, Carlow, Kildare and her native Meath. Last Thursday night she was in Portlaoise for the retirement dinner of long-serving Fine Gael TD Charlie Flanagan. She was then back on Friday to visit Mountmellick and Stradbally and rounded the day off by stopping by in LaoisToday for a podcast interview. In a good-humoured chat, she discusses how she arrived in the political world, what her week in Brussels and Strasbourg entails and why she thinks her party colleague Mairead McGuinness would make a great President.Having been well-used to a hectic life as a jockey, she's now balancing her political role with the family life and young children.After her trip to Laois, she was heading back home to Meath to bring her daughters to ladies football training in Ratoath.