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Higgins in a spot of bother over Dual Mandate ‘abuse’
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Joe Higgins is both a councillor and MEP in waiting. The dual mandate ban means that he has to pick one over the other – with the choice being made by Joe to head to Brussels and nominate a replacement in his council seat.
Only Fine Gael are miffed that he doesn’t take up the MEP post until mid-July, allowing him to sit as a councillor until then. In his role as leader of the socialist party he is negotiation deals on the Mayoralty before heading over to Brussels. The balance in Fingal has Labour on 9, SP on 3 out of 24 seats. That means Joe is in a pretty strong negotiating position before heading to Brussels, annoying opponents no end.
Fine Gael Senator Eugene Regan said he believed Mr Higgins’ proposed actions made a mockery of efforts to end the dual mandate for politicians.
I can’t stand his politics and from the profile I read of him in the Irish Times last week, I don’t think I’d care for him personally too much either. But FG are just making a mountain out of molehill – if Joe Higgins doesn’t take up his post as an MEP until mid-July then until such time as he resigns from the Council and his replacement as Cllr is appointed he’s perfectly entitled to continue to exercise his role as an elected Cllr, is he not?
Fine Gael’s whining is completely ridiculous.
Joe Higgins is currently a councillor and will not be an MEP until the middle of July. Therefore he is perfectly entitled to act as a councillor.
Fine Gael were hoping to take advantage of a procedural technicality to reduce the number of left wing councillors by one for the votes on various positions this year – if Higgins was already an MEP then he would be deemed to have resigned from Fingal County Council and would be replaced by a Socialist Party nominee. But the Socialist Party nominee wouldn’t be able to take his or her seat until after the votes on who takes the official positions had already been taken. Fine Gael were hoping to benefit from this brief “interregnum” in representation for the Castleknock ward and are now crying like spoiled children because they aren’t going to get a chance to.
sure his replacement would do the same.
Higgins replacement on the council (if higgins can name his own replacement)would vote the same so the outcome may be the same,but there should be a question over people who are leaving office voting on or making decisions when they will not be around to answer for their actions–think Woods and the “deal”or Roche and the M3 or ministers appointing their own to state boards the day before they leave office.Higgins probably vigorously criticised this practice.
what way sp votes re council control will make no difference lp and fg will go in together, again with this nonsense number crunching that just ain’t going to happen.
Betty,
There’s a long tradition in Irish and UK politics of Ministers ‘clearing their desks’ right up to the moment of leaving office. Those on the way in to replace them may not always like it, but when their turn comes they do it too.
I don’t see what harm is does that Joe is still there until the actually first meeting of the parliament but it is somewhat inconsistent that the dual mandate kicks immediately for the likes of Pat the Cope but latter for others. There again it is just a council seat.