With a poor attendance record how can mary Lou defend her expenses claim

Darsad

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/meps-silent-over-expenses-1712767.html

I suppose it is par for the course with the shinners and their MPs claiming living expenses in the UK for a parliment they never attended ,But De Rossa and Harkin both claimed more than € 350K I would truly love to hear them try to justify such massive claims . This is making me seriously rethink my voting preferences come June 5th

Nodin

Done to death here, tbh....
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055560124

Darsad

Mods can you change the title to MEP expense claims . I suppose Mary Lou has taken enough slack !

turgon

Expenses are used to pay for staff, with some MEP's having up to 7 staff asfaik.

Scofflaw

turgon wrote: »

Expenses are used to pay for staff, with some MEP's having up to 7 staff asfaik.

And staff are used to do research, so that the MEP has some idea of what they're voting on. The lack of such research staff in the Dáil is indicative of the extent to which TDs simply vote the party line, and so have no need to find out what's actually happening - something that, in turn, works out very badly for them come referendums (or any complex issues in the public eye).

cordially,
Scofflaw

turgon

Are such research staff present in other parliaments?

BlitzKrieg

indepedent wrote:

The Galvin Report revealed huge abuses of MEPs' expenses, which had been kept secret by the European Parliament.

It selected a random 167 MEPs for checks during 2004 and exposed a culture of MEPs paying huge "bonuses" to staff.

In one case, the bonus was worth 19.5 times the official's monthly salary.

The interesting thing, is that salary reform was implemented after that report in 2005 and will take effect after this election.

Which with the exception of the UK will bring MEP salaries down for the most part and keep them consistent and less open to abuse. The UK is an exception because of the collapse of their currency and the fact that they get paid in euros the exchange rate gives them a good chunk more.

On the report not being released/expenses revealed, I am sort of agreeing its an outrage in some aspects and in other aspects I can understand.

The outrage is that MEP's who have abused their powers do not need to be punished by parliament itself they need to be held accountable by their electorate, which is very much where I am coming from with accordance to Kathy Sinnott, we know she abused her MEP claims, I wont vote for her and would argue with anyone who is over this core reason. IF other Irish meps have also abused their powers I would like to know.

But on the release of the report and the release of how much meps earn, I would be less inclined to bounce up and down in outrage because its an issue that has been dealt with since 2005 as the EU has already addressed the complaints in the report, patched up the loopholes and has now set a standard pay for all MEP's, after this election all MEP's will get the same, so the call to reveal your earnings is sort of wasted when after june 5th I can go to the EU website and look at how much everyone gets paid because they will all get paid the same. So releasing things like how much you are getting paid right now and a report that already has been dealt with is like throwing a can of fuel onto a fire that you already have under control.

So abuse of power yes I would like to know if any mep has abused their powers as it should be us the electorate to slap them on the wrist and tell them that we are not having that sort of sh*t, but a withchunt on expenses, an issue that has already been sorted seems irrelevent to me.

Scofflaw

turgon wrote: »

Are such research staff present in other parliaments?

Very much so.

cordially,
Scofflaw

kmick

MEP's spend up to 100-200k on their re-election on the basis that they can pull down 200k unvouched expenses per annum - therefore its worth the investment. Its a horrible system and the sooner they change it to vouched expenses the better.

Scofflaw

kmick wrote: »

MEP's spend up to 100-200k on their re-election on the basis that they can pull down 200k unvouched expenses per annum - therefore its worth the investment. Its a horrible system and the sooner they change it to vouched expenses the better.

Immediately after the elections works for you, then?

cordially,
Scofflaw

skearon

Darsad wrote: »

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/meps-silent-over-expenses-1712767.html

I suppose it is par for the course with the shinners and their MPs claiming living expenses in the UK for a parliment they never attended ,But De Rossa and Harkin both claimed more than € 350K I would truly love to hear them try to justify such massive claims . This is making me seriously rethink my voting preferences come June 5th

She can't, as her attendence at less than 50% in 2008 is a disgrace, the only reason she went for Europe is due to her repeated failure at getting elected to the Dáil.

She still refuses to say that she won't run away from Europe at the next general election, so why waste a vote on someone with no committment to her voters or Europe, and cynically campaigns against Lisbon and therefore against workers rights and job creation.

Rosser

She is a shinner and therefore an expert in defending the indefensible

kmick

Scofflaw wrote: »

Immediately after the elections works for you, then?

cordially,
Scofflaw

Says nothing about making expenses vouched in that article.

rcecil

Just the fact she was out campaigning for (and won) a no vote on Lisbon and defending the average Irish citizen is proof of her worth. Mary Lou is paid the average industrial wage just like all elected SFers and gives the rest of her salary to the party. Sinn Fein works for Ireland, the other parties work for the wealthy and the corporations that destroyed the Irish economy.

In terms of the MP expense scandal, SF MPs need to represent constituents in London and Brussels just as much as the ones that take their oath to the foreign queen.

Right on Lisbon!
Right on Workers' rights
Right on the environment!
Right on Shell to Sea!
Right on Palestine!
Right on the economy! (Who are the loolas now?)

Time to take another look!

Scofflaw

kmick wrote: »

Says nothing about making expenses vouched in that article.

It does, in fact, if a little implicitly:

MEPs have also agreed to accept reimbursement for the actual journeys they take, instead of the full fare that they were entitled to, which led to open profiteering from expenses. Some MEPs were paying budget airline fares while claiming for the full price of flights

This is a bit more detailed:

All MEPs, however, will be affected by changes to the travel expenses: While they could in the past reimburse the costs for a business class flight even if they flew economy class or low-fare, they will now have to present tickets and will then only receive the price actually paid. This long overdue reform will end years of criticism of alleged abuse of status and the bad image of MEPs jumping the 'gravy train'.

Bear in mind, the reform was voted on in 2005, so this isn't exactly new news.

cordially,
Scofflaw

kmick

rcecil wrote: »

Sinn Fein works for Ireland...

If they worked for Ireland they would return the money to the Irish exchequer. They work for Sinn Fein as they return the money to Sinn Fein. That money in turn is probably used to print t-shirts and buy bullets to shoot Gardai.

oscarBravo

kmick wrote: »

That money in turn is probably used to print t-shirts and buy bullets to shoot Gardai.

Let's not go there.

ionix5891

wasnt there a thread few months back about SF claiming for flats in London but never bothering to show up?