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THE IRISH MEPS with the worst participation rates in parliament votes have defended their scores.
Data from VoteWatch.eu, a website that monitors the voting habits of MEPs, has ranked Ireland bottom of all Member States for attendance at plenary sessions.
These sessions last a week, take place each month (except August), and consist of MEPs taking part in debates and votes.
Ireland’s low score is due to Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan’s 16.59% rate of attendance, and Brian Crowley’s 0%.
Flanagan said this morning that he has been unable to attend sessions due to his wife being ill.
Flanagan told Newstalk Breakfast he is restricted in what he can do from Ireland.
“I have been doing my damnedest from Ireland to deal with all issues via email and telephone,” he said.
“Ultimately, for me, my family comes first.”
He added that it wasn’t his intention to attend so infrequently – “You don’t get elected to stand by the sidelines”.
Crowley has been in hospital for several months, a spokesperson said.
If both of these MEPs were removed from Ireland’s score, the attendance rate would rise to 87%. We are currently last at 72.73%. Austria comes first with a rate of 96.26%
Here’s the full list:
Fianna Fail sold it’s soul, or what semblance of one it had, a long time ago. The abyss awaits them, thankfully.
@Laois Weather: That was said before after the 2008 crash and they still survived.
And not ten years later they were back in power. We get everything we deserve.
@Laois Weather: they are the most corrupt and incompetent political party in the history of the state, the only party in the history of the state to have to call in the IMF after bankrupting the country, yet, after less than a decade after all the damage they did to the country, they got back into government. We deserve all the hardship we suffer
@Laois Weather: They sold their soul more than once
We were all misled.
Roderic must go!
@Robert Duggan: What I can’t understand is why any party should push for a certain result . Surely a referendum is an idea out to the people to decide on. There should be no propaganda on either side to influence how people decide. This particular referendum was doomed from get go. Everyone knew that,. The smart guys in Leinster House are obviously on a different planet
Can’t believe they left the comments section open on this article.
I find my myself wondering on a daily basis how the 1916 Martyrs and all the men & women who fought and those that died for our freedom would make of the crowd sitting in Dail Eireann. I am quite sure that today’s Ireland is not the one they envisaged.
@Liz Dunning: Respected! I guess they see us more as fools who just accept all thats thrown at or taken from them and say nothing. Our Govt are just puppets for the powers that be in Brussels and love it.
@Liz Dunning: Respected?
For taking on a huge national debt to save the Euro?
Respected would not be the word used behind our backs.
@Liz Dunning: You’re funny. Ireland’s present predicament, not so much. Maybe read up on Ireland’s history and all of the sh*t our people went through before making your next comment. Perhaps you could learn a little!
@Mike: No learning there, brainwashed party hack, that votes FF because Daddy, granddaddy & great granddaddy did.
@Liz Dunning: You are deluded if you think we are respected across the world. How could anyone respect a bunch of simpletons going cap in hand , with a bowl of shamrock to Washington, to beg for money and support? The Americans play along because they are using Ireland for corporate gains and we’re easy to appease. Just tell us we’re great craic and that everyone loves us, and that should do the trick. We will eventually choke on our own baseless hubris.
If you can hide your Irishness and live in another country for a long time, as I have, you’ll get a much clearer idea of what the world thinks of us ,and it hurts to hear , especially if you are not a flag waving, grammatically bankrupt ,binge drinking, Bouncy Castle Catholic ,lazy ass, ignorant coke fiend.
FF with Martin at the helm is going nowhere. He’s stale and has nothing to offer. No FF vote here if he leads FF to the next election.
@Andrew Kenny: anyone who votes for FF is a clown
@Andrew Kenny: Martin is the greatest ditherer to ever grace Irish politics…the sooner this man and his corrupt party buddies exit political life the better for us all.
O Dea has been elected in Limerick for centuries and what has it done for Limerick? An overcrowded hospital, overcrowded schools, and a city centre in rapid decline.
@Keyser Söze: in fairness he did wave a gun about as minister for defence
@John Reynolds: that was class to be fair
@Keyser Söze: you haven’t been to limerick for years,
First few paragraphs , soul searching etc why was it a no vote etc , People are fed up of all goverment parties , taxed to death while Billions leave the country everyday and what a lie that multinationals pay 12 % now going up to 15 % they only pay 1% and homeless rampant ,health everthing thing is a mess
Micheál Martin has done more damage to the Party than Bertie, Charlie and the rest combined.
@The Green Monkey: And amazingly hes done it in the most impassive way. The guy is a non entity.
@Louis Jacob: *passive
I think it’s time for me to turn in.
The tail has been the wagging the dog of Irish government for a long time. Overfunded ngo sector and liberati created the need for that referendum. Can’t see why anyone would want to be a politician in this country anymore. Your wrong if you do and wrong if you don’t
@J P: Which NGOs would you get rid of? Age Action? Irish Wheelchair Association? Alzheimers Society?
@Jacintha Dumbrell: start with NWCI.
@Jacintha Dumbrell: All of those “charities” that exist to allow the state not to do its job, for a start.
Those that deal with homelessness, as an example.
These “charities” exist for the benefit of their executives, who have no interest in solving problems.
That would put them out of a job.
And the state loves these “charities” because it allows the state to shirk its own duties and responsibilities to the people.
@Jacintha Dumbrell: Why name those three, are they the ones you would like to see disbanded? Shame on you!
@Jacintha Dumbrell: You would probably have put Console in your list as well, for the “charities” that pull at the hear strings, but we all know what happened at Console.
All these “charities” are now businesses where a CEO & Executive board have to be paid mind boggling salaries & expenses, very little of the money is trickling down to where it’s needed. ROG maintains control then by threatening to cut off funding unless they follow his agenda. All NGO’s need to be shut down with immediate effect, only reinstate those that actually provide essential services & put in salary caps & intensive auditing in place.
Can wait to see Fianna Fail and Fine Gael sniping away at one another come the next election, while simultaneously trying to pretend they’re two peas in a pod. The grassroots won’t stand for too much more of this shamelessness.
A lot of shafting done, a lot more to do.
With local and general elections on the horizon, these spoofers would say anything to get re-elected and once back in power, it will be business as usual.
We were proud in the 70s to have jack lynch as taoiseach as a corkonian, when michael martin was taoiseach he was a embarrassment to our county
@burrito girl: Killian Murphy for Taoiseach.
@Louis Jacob: he’s too intelligent for that nonsense!
@burrito girl: The incompetence of Jack Lynch’s government drove us into recession, the effects of which took 15 years before we began to recover again.
Disbanded seems like a great option.
Fella in the yellow van was sentenced in 2022 to 7 years for a similar crime but its now 2024. How is he out or are my maths complely wrong?
The torch bearing mob and the media feeding frenzy around immigration, won’t turn the mainstream parties far right to entice the mob to vote for them, but they certainly will all shift a little bit far right lite, to prevent their grassroots from considering voting for some self styled far right loola!
They will say things like, something needs to be done about Immigration!
Just to get a few extra votes to get them across the line in the European elections and any future national elections, because that’s what politicians do, whatever it takes to stay on the gravy train.
The proposed hate speak legislation isn’t about protecting minorities, children or the vunerable. It’s about silencing all dissent and criticism of our political class and their cronies, now and in the future.
Unfortunately ff were involved in corruption of every kind from total lax control on banks planning and god knows what else after putting our children and their children in huge debt they go in with fg and the greens who were with them in government in 2007 I’d say avoid like the plague
FF need to reinvent themselves – Martin, the dictator, has to go along with his enablers. Without that FF will not exist in 10 years,
@Toby Thedogk: FF have driven this country into recession due to sheer incompetence 3 times in my lifetime, and bankrupted us.
Sinn Fein was a proscribed organisation as I recall. Presumably because it was deemed a threat to the nation.
When the real threat was in the Dail.
@Toby Thedogk: it is time FF were consigned to the dustbin of history, they have inflicted enough hardship and suffering on the Irish people
Willie o Dea and Fianna fail are a danger to the country
Holy Mephisto! Politicians claim to have souls? I thought that was the first thing they would have sold off for the proverbial 30 pieces of silver and whatnot before they moved on to selling out the rest of us for gain…
@William Tallon: Nah!
Fianna Fail, and FG, and The Greens, and Labour, sold their souls to their respective parties.
Which then sold them on to vested interests.
(Or was it a rental agreement?)
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: Better the Divil y’know, I suppose…
Unfortunately anything for power,country is a shadow of what it was,run by incompetent clowns only after themselves and they’re egos and in the end the public take the hit one way or the other and no decent alternative in sight just more of the same, such a disgrace
What next for FF? Annihilation if they don’t get their stit together.
@Padraig O’Brien: annihilation hopefully, it’s what they deserve
Ff and FG have been spooked into following this nonsense agenda by the increase in support for SF. The problem is those who support this ultra woke SF agenda will never support FF or FG. They would be better off in the long run if they stayed true to their origins and dealt with the bread and butter issues rather than allowing themselves to be controlled by ideological NGOS.
@Frank McGlynn: What is ‘ultra woke’?
What is ‘woke’ for that matter?
And what is woke, or ultra woke about Sinn Fein’s agenda?
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: Try googling the word woke, if you haven’t heard of it before. The term has been around a while now. Whether or not you agree with its definition, it’s widely known and used. You’re welcome.
@Mike: Oh, I know what woke means.
It means aware.
The opposite of oblivious.
So your problem is that you do not want or like people who are aware. You like people to remain oblivious, like you.
And when you use the word woke, you are really insulting yourself.
I was giving you an opportunity to learn something.
Particularly about yourself.
@Mike: Oh, and we notice that you are also unable to answer the other simple question I posed:
Which policies of Sinn Fein are ‘ultra woke’ please?
@Frank McGlynn: Accurate assessment.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: I didn’t use the word, nor did I give an opinion on it. You should learn how to pay attention instead of firing out overly emotional retorts to imagined comments. Now, go and enjoy your day.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: Maybe ask the original poster who made the claim. Did that not occur to you? Get a coffee in there and then take a brisk walk, wake your head up a bit : )
2 slow learners!!
Social media has overtime revealed the machinations of the media and its role in keeping the population in the dark about how power & influence has been maintained by a tiny minority, that benefits greatly from doing so. The hate speech bill is like closing the gate after the horse has bolted .
Obviously plenty on here with loads of ideas how to improve the country. Well now is your chance, Local and European elections this year, followed by General Election in early 2024. Of course that actually means doing something, instead of moaning behind a keyboard
@Peter Byrne: That admonition makes you sound very like someone moaning behind a keyboard…
@Peter Byrne: It doesn’t work like that.
No one knows who you are, what you are like.
The only way to get a high profile is to have contacts in the right places. And that mostly means being part of a political party that has access to media.
So these political parties control who become candidates that might have a chance.
The ordinary guy, the guy who might actually make a difference, generally has no chance.
None at all.
A lot of fascists spreading hate on social media, particularly Twitter, who need a good long spell in prison. Especially the grifters who travel around with their selfie-sticks.
@Jacintha Dumbrell: point here is ?
@Jacintha Dumbrell: What are you on about, exactly? Selfie stick nazis??? Lololololol
@Jacintha Dumbrell: Yes, we should lock up anyone who doesn’t share your woke attitude, because they are fascists. However, a lot of non fascists also use selfie sticks and we might be squandering resources by hounding them .
Better to organise dawn raids on their homes, knock the front door off its hinges, drag them out by force, bound and gagged and straight to prison for that lengthy spell you mentioned.
@John Reynolds: the point here is that Jacintha is an unwitting fascist herself.
There are no difference between FG and FF, they should and probably need to merge in order to survive.
Personal ambition are what keep them separated
The party that gave us Haughey, Bertie, Ray Burke, P Flynn, Liam Lawlor, Ivor Callely, Denis Foley, Michael Collins, the Galway tent & now Micheal Martin, one of those who bankrupted the State & saw the IMF & Troika arrive. Next likely Govt will be FF, SF & SD’s. So we will have Micheal again, Darragh O Brien, Stephen Donnelly, Mc Grath, Norma Foley, Troy, Collins, Chambers, Rabbitte, Butler, Calleary, O Callaghan, Timmy Dooley, the whole shebang again. If that’s not enough of a warning or enough to make people get angry, then as a nation we are finished. This Govt with FF will be the one that finally finishes off completely, God knows they have had enough attempts at it.
Fianna Fail was always the party of cute h******, so it’s not surprising that many in that party are calling for a reversion to form. They detected a socially conservative backlash in this country, so many of them hypocritically flipped from Yes to No before the recent referendums!!! Also, many FF TDs, having sniffed straws in the wind, have their gaze on future elections!! Being in power is more important than integrity and honesty.
Over a century of be
I’m tired of politicians going around crying about about torturous their job is. Across all parties they have long since turned their back on the general public it’s about position money making and appeasing the woke lifestyles
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