Head over to our T
Votewatch.eu or What did MEP X, Y, or Z do ?
Read more about: Connaught-Ulster, Democracy, Europe, European Parliament, Leinster, Munster 
It’s that time again with the European election nominations just closed that you might actually be interested in what your MEP has been up to for the last term. Want to check how they voted or how often they were in Brussel ? Thanks to http://votewatch.eu you can.
The project has been sponsored by the European Policy Centre with the aim of assisting the monitoring of MEPs. It provides details on the voting, attendance, party allegiances of MEPs. The search functionality of the site allows users to query an MEP’s record based on their EU party / grouping, nationality, and particular national political party.
So on to the sport as they say!
In the `Motions for resolutions’ category, which deals with motions put forward for voting on by the parliament. The top three are Brian Crowley (101), Eoin Ryan (91), and Colm Burke (45). The bottom three are Jim Higgins (1), Mairead McGuinness (5), and Marian Harkin (5).
In the `Parliamentary questions’ category, which details the questions asked by MEPs to the European Commission or to the Council of the European Union. The top three are Proinsias de Rossa (1067!), Jim Higgins (324), and Kathy Sinnott (213). The bottom three are Colm Bourke (41), Sean O Neachtain (104), and Eoin Ryan (105).
Good to know who is working but lets get to the main event or the attendance figures. The top three are Brian Crowley (94.3%), Sean O Neachtain (93.29%), and Kathy Sinnott (92.98%). The bottom three in visiting the parliament are Eoin Ryan (83.22%), Mairead McGuinness (84.56%), and Proinsias de Rossa (85.32%).
I’m sure that next weekend’s papers will see a nice break down by the political correspondents looking in detail at the attendance and motions / questions categories.
Here is the GP’s take.
http://www.greenparty.ie/en/news/latest_news/greens_are_best_attendees_in_the_european_parliament_de_burca
Mary Lou is here .
http://votewatch.eu/cx_parlamentar_detalii.php?euro_parlamentar_id=417&lang=en&eps=0
Surely, Mary Lou has the worst attendance figures. She is not included in your post above as one of the worst attending MEPs. She has tried to make excuses for this, which have been valid for a period but not over the course of 5 years. I think her attendance was floating in or around the 65% mark. Abysmal to say the least. She was elected to represent people and if you are not where you are supposed to be representing them then you are not really doing the job you were elected to do.
@Damian – that was quick off the mark but pointing out the attendance figures of non-Irish MEPs is rather irrelevant to the Irish electorate and taking a low swipe at Mary Lou is playing petrol pump politics. I am no fan of Mary Lou (some past remarks on her early MEP debating skills) but I respect the fact that she found time to have a family and manage her political commitments to the people of Dublin. The slant put on that press release is more likely found in US Republican attack adverts than in Irish elections.
@Marcus – Mary Lou has got a `get out of jail free’ card due to her pregnancy this term. I applaud her managing her commitment to public service and her family. I do not think it is an appropriate argument and I’m very sure the voters of Dublin are well aware of how she spent the last couple of years.
I’m well known as not being a fan of SF and I have been physically harassed by many of their members over the years, including one wee blonde excitable thing from UL who wasn’t quite on the ball as I was with my verbal banter. It is funny to think that the said woman who had to be restrained is now their South candidate, bottom of the barrel stuff or what…..
I’ll happily judge a candidate on past performance or straight up attendance but gotta give a break where a break is due.
@Braz Not sure it’s a ‘get out of jail free’ card but we can leave the attendance figures aside and agree that Mary Lou has been one of the strongest advocates Against the EU. Personally, I feel that given the state of the economy we should be working closer with the EU and availing of the benefits of a strong relationship with Europe.
Enda Kenny spoke of the importance of these elections and I think to an extent he was certainly right. It is important that Ireland returns candidates who will work with the EU to make Ireland stronger and to get us out of this recession. I think those who argue against the EU right now are beyond foolish. I’m pretty pleased about the stability that we have due to our membership of the EU and this is something we would not have if we were to adopt the positions of parties like SF who have been against all efforts to further European integration.
Unfortunately, there’s a lot of errors
I prefer http://www.parlorama.eu, it’s more funny!
Seems that parlorama.eu has been shut down and hasn’t come back online as stated in many articles such as this one so I guess the votewatch.eu is the only one up at the moment.
When you look at the statistics on Motions for Resolution and Patliamentary Questions, it’s worth bearing in mind that Colm Burke only became an MEP in July 2007, so the figures for him only reflect that limited period.
@Denis True, but the percentages are relevant to time period served – not the whole tem
@Damian, I think you’re confusing the issue as @Denis was talking particularly about motions and PQs which are discrete, finite, and in no way linked to time. The number of questions or motions are straight up, no maths required.
Going back to sums, here are the consolidated attendance figures for political parties and which mean nothing in essence:
FF – 90.605%
Independents – 90.27%
FG – 87.526%
Labour – 85.23%
They mean nothing really given the nature of how motions and PQs are dealt with and the number / significance of these processes I think that some complex summary metric is more appropriate. An equivalent to a modified G Index (Wikipedia entry) for political contribution giving a summary result would be desirable. A single measure could encapsulate the full spectrum of work achieved by an MEP. I’m sure some University researcher will eventually provide one…
Damian, for her 2nd term Patricia McKenna (remember her) had 155 Parliamentary questions and 155 motions for resolution and amended or drafted 10 reports and made 233 speeches in plenary sessions!
Nuala Ahern had 109 Questions, just the 30 motions, 2 reports and made 107 speeches in plenary sessions.
Now will Deirdre will highlight Patricia’s formidable rate of engagement with the parliament and will she just ignore the considerably more laid back approach of Green MEP Nuala Ahern? Or is it only the foreign Green MEPs we should look to?
This is the official attendance sheet from the European Parliament for Mary Lou McDonald
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/mepatt/28111.pdf
It shows her attendance at 56%. Now we need to take into account her maternity leave so we should take 39 sessions out of that figure which leaves her attendance at approximately 65%.
That is fairly shocking. I suppose as she said on questions and answers tonight her focus is on domestic politics. She will no doubt be throwing her hat in the ring whenever that general election is next upon us.