Now, after a little help from Europe Direct I can bring you the votes of Irish MEPs in relation to the final Data Retention Directive vote yesterday. (via the unworkable europarl website)
Dublin
Proinsias De Rossa (Lab- ESP)- For
Mary Lou McDonald (SF- GUE/NLG)- Against
Gay Mitchell (FG-EPP)- Against
Eoin Ryan (FF-UEN)- Abstained
East
Liam Aylward (FF-UEN)- Abstained
Avril Doyle (FG-EPP)- Abstained
Mairead McGuinness (FG-EPP)- Abstained
South
Simon Coveney (FG-EPP)- Abstained
Brian Crowley (FF-UEN)- Abstained
Kathy Sinnot (Ind-IDG)- Not Present
North West
Marian Harkin (Ind-ALDE)- Against
Jim Higgins (FF-UEN)- Abstained
Sean O’ Neachtain (FF-UEN)- Not Present
So there you go. Labour’s MEP Proinsias De Rossa votes to bring in mass surveillance of internet usage, and to make challenges to our current law more complicated.
Gay Mitchell voted against it, correctly breaking with the EPP grouping’s party line.
Mary Lou McDonald also voted against, following her grouping’s party line.
Marian Harkin voted against and her grouping of Liberals was split, so credit to her for making the right decision.
And then everyone else had no opinion on the introduction of mass surveillance of their constituents. An abstention is better than a vote in favour, I suppose.
FF were clearly not willing to vote either way, as the government is in favour of the idea behind the directive, but has said it will sue over the method of bringing the law in.
I was particularly surprised at Mairead McGuinness’ vote, given the very helpful, friendly and intelligent discussions she had with me in the days leading up to the vote.
But there you are. Votes are what count. The Pro-Directive side won out in the end by 378 to 197 with 30 abstentions.
Those are the votes of the Brussels jury.
1 Comment
Surely the argument against the democratic deficit is that we are adequately and enthusiastically represented by our MEP’s. In this instance as with many significant others, the MEPS from across the divide have used the abstention option to shirk their democratic respinsibilities. I doubt very much if the majority of the Irish populace would have abstained on this matter, besides we were never even consulted or polled officially as per usual. With the impending EU Constitution perhaps the electorate should take better note of the utter cowardice of our MEP’s who fail to represent a fair and balanced Irish electorate never mind our obvious unwillingness to accept the DRD without even a fight. The High Court gave locus standi to this issue, surely the Government should have given us the right to discuss it and its consequences? 7 out of 30 MEP abstentions were from the Irish delegation – bravo pathetic wimps! Shame on you.