Ming: I can achieve great things for my people

Independent TD Luke Ming Flanagan has made a desperate plea to voters for support, admitting he has made mistakes but claiming he will go on to do “great things” for his people.

Amid recent calls for his resignation, Mr Flanagan also defended his place in the Dáil.

The Roscommon-South Leitrim TD recently admitted having penalty points quashed for using his phone while driving in June 2011. Gardaí wiped two penalty points and a fine off his record after he wrote to them about being caught using his phone behind the wheel in Roscommon.

In a letter addressing voters in a local newspaper this week, he called on constituents to boot out Fine Gael representatives at the next election because of the Government decision to close Roscommon Hospital’s emergency department.

“Many people say: ‘Sure, they will never do that [reopen the unit]’. Well fine, then remove them at the next opportunity, the 2014 local election,” Mr Flanagan wrote in the Roscommon People.

The TD recently also claimed a “senior county council official” helped cancel another set of points for the same offence on a separate occasion and told him he had “sorted out” the points with a garda.

Defending his continued presence in the Dái, Mr Flanagan argued that it was more productive to attend committee hearings rather than Leaders’ Questions with Enda Kenny.

“I could alternatively have attended Leaders’ Questions, but what would I have achieved?” he wrote. “I would get to hear our Taoiseach fail to answer a single question. I would have got to hear him call Gerry Adams a terrorist, say that Micheál Martin had ruined the country, and that the technical group are a rabble.”

He claimed he had spoken in the Dáil more than his constituency colleagues, Fine Gael TDs Frank Feighan and Denis Naughten.

“Every week my office carries out approximately 250 hours’ work,” he said. “We deal with hundreds of calls every month. Each and every one is answered and followed up on, sometimes for months on end. Much of these requests come in electronic form whether that be through email, Twitter, or Facebook.”

Independent TDs have rounded on Mr Flanagan and called on him to leave the Dáil’s technical group because his penalty points scandal is distracting from business.

However, Mr Flanagan pledged to change for his supporters. “I will admit and have admitted that I have made mistakes,” he said. “When I have done so I put up my hand. I believe I am worth my place in Dáil Éireann. I believe I can go on to achieve great things for my people.”