Irish MEPs praised for voting record by eurosceptic group

IRELAND’S representatives in Europe’s parliament have been rated highly for their record on transparency and EU reform in a league table published by a British eurosceptic think-tank.

The country’s MEPs came sixth of the 27 member countries in the report.

Four of the country’s five female MEPs topped the Irish list, having voted for sanctions against MEPs caught cheating on their expenses, and also to scrap subsidies to tobacco farmers and to abolish their second seat in Strasbourg.

The top-ranking Irish MEP was independent Kathy Sinnott, rated joint 18th out of 785 members, followed by Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald, Fine Gael’s Mairead McGuinness and another independent, Marian Harkin.

However, some of the issues rated highly by the think-tank, funded by business interests that want to keep Britain out of the euro, might not go down too well with the Irish electorate.

They handed out full marks to the Irish MEPs for voting “to respect the outcome of the Lisbon Treaty referendum in Ireland,” before last June’s vote.

All 13 MEPs supported this, except Labour’s Proinsias De Rossa, who said this was tantamount to inviting the European Parliament to interfere with the sovereign right of the Irish people to make up their own minds.

All the MEPs voted to keep MEPs expenses and accounts under wraps and, except for Fine Gael’s Jim Higgins, all voted for easier access to EU documents.

Only Kathy Sinnott, Marian Harkin, Proinsias De Rossa and Brian Crowley were in favour of putting voting records and declarations of financial interests on the parliament’s website. This information now has been published.

A report on allowances and expenses turned up a number of cases of fraud, including a Tory MEP claiming more than €500,000 in unjustified allowances. He was asked to repay the money but the legislation does not allow for sanctions.

A vote to draw up a series of punishments was defeated. Five Irish MEPs voted in favour of the measure – Ms Sinnott, Ms McDonald, Ms McGuinness, Ms Harkin and Mr De Rossa.

The Irish votes were the same in a call for MEPs to travel at the lowest possible fare and be recompensed for only the amount spent.

This was defeated, but from July, MEPs will be repaid only what they spend but will not have to travel in the cheapest seats.

More points were awarded to MEPs who refused to adopt the EU’s accounts for 2006 and 2007 that were queried by the Court of Auditors unhappy with the way national governments spent EU money. All Irish MEPs were given top marks for wanting to delay adopting the accounts of the European Council because they were unhappy with foreign policy spending.