All five Fine Gael MEPs and two Fianna Fáil MEPs have committed to following stricter transparency standards in the European Parliament in the wake of the Qatargate scandal.
There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by any Irish MEPs but the sprawling investigation into alleged corruption has brought into focus the parliament’s lax reporting rules for meetings with lobbyists and oversight of expenses, which are blamed for making it easier for bad actors to abuse the system.
In response to questions sent to all MEPs, the Fine Gael group committed to filing declarations voluntarily about the use of expense allowances, and backed the reporting of meetings with interest groups beyond what the parliament’s current rules require.
“The Fine Gael MEPs are fully in favour of the public recording of meetings undertaken in their work as Members of the European Parliament,” the statement read. “They also support voluntary reporting of the use of the General Expenditure Allowance.” A spokeswoman confirmed this meant the MEPs would now file such declarations.
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“I keep a record and nearly always take a photograph of my meetings and I hold those meetings in public areas. Voluntarily declaring them is no problem for me,” Fine Gael group leader Seán Kelly said.
MEPs are not obligated to declare how they spend a monthly general expenditure allowance of €4,778, with no receipts required.
Only Sinn Féin’s Chris MacManus and Green MEPs Grace O’Sullivan and Ciarán Cuffe have filed voluntary declarations on the use of their expense allowances. The Greens both filed auditors’ statements certifying that receipts had been checked and that the MEPs “did not receive any personal benefit” from the money.
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Taoiseach and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin would not be drawn on whether his party as a whole would commit to the voluntary reporting of all meetings with interest groups and filing of expense declarations by its MEPs.
“I think whatever the rules are, people should adhere to the rules,” he said, adding that he backed a “broader framework” for transparency including an “overarching ethics agency” to ensure compliance.
Fianna Fáil MEP Billy Kelleher said he would now register all meetings with interest groups “irrespective of whether or not it relates to a file I am working directly on”, going beyond the requirements of current transparency rules.
“You must declare who you meet and why you met those people. Any idea that someone would take money from a state, from a Government, or from a large company is simply unacceptable and this must be rooted out,” Mr Kelleher said.
“I know that the Belgian state prosecutor’s office is, as we speak, investigating other members and other offices, so there’s no doubt that this may travel further than we have seen so far.”
Likewise, fellow Fianna Fáil MEP Barry Andrews also said he was “happy to go further and report all meetings with lobbyists given the revelations in the last week and the erosion of public trust”.
Both Mr Kelleher and Mr Andrews said they had followed the rules in place regarding the general expenditure allowance and would continue to do so.
As reported by The Irish Times last week, five Irish MEPs declared no meetings for the first three years of their mandate until contacted, including three Fine Gael MEPs and two Left independents.
Under the parliament’s transparency rules MEPs are only obliged to report meetings with interest groups in a narrow set of circumstances, though many MEPs voluntarily declare all meetings as standard practice.
