Sinn Féin MEPs ‘safe’ from threat of Parliament allowances freeze

By Martin Banks

Date: 17/03/05

THE European Parliament's leaders are expected to reject demands that the allowances of Sinn Féin's two MEPs be suspended.

About a dozen MEPs wrote to the assembly's quaestors, its disciplinary body, requesting that allowances be withdrawn from Mary Lou McDonald, Sinn Féin's Dublin MEP, and Bairbre de Brún, the party's Northern Ireland representative, because of their party's alleged links to an IRA bank robbery.

But a recommendation from Parliament's legal services to the bureau of the president and vice presidents, with whom a final decision rests, is expected to say there is no legal basis for the move.

Withdrawal of the allowances, which are used to employ staff and pay office expenses, could deprive the two MEPs of tens of thousands of euros per year.

Earlier this month, the party's four UK MPs, including Gerry Adams, were stripped of their House of Commons allowances for 12 months because of the IRA's alleged involvement in a raid on the Northern Bank in Belfast.

A Parliament source said there were differences between the Westminster and European representatives. "The two MEPs attend the European Parliament: it is their place of work. Unlike their Westminster counterparts, they are sitting members and, as such, it is believed there is no legal basis for withdrawing the attendance allowance, or any other allowances, to which they are legally entitled."

McDonald, elected to the Parliament last June, said a decision along those lines would "not be surprising". "It merely confirms our view that the attempt to suspend our allowances was a publicity stunt by certain deputies," she said.

UK Conservative MEP Roger Helmer was among a group of mostly British deputies demanding sanctions against McDonald and de Brún.

He said: "If the rules governing our Parliament allow representatives of a terrorist organisation to sit here and claim allowances then there is something wrong with the rules."

Edward McMillan-Scott, a fellow British MEP, and a vice-president of the Parliament, said: "We should be following the same approach as that recently taken against the two Sinn Fein MPs. I would be disappointed if the Parliament rules that there is no legal basis for imposing this sanction and, if that is the case, may ask for the decision to be reconsidered.

McMillan-Scott added: "Sinn Féin and its representatives continue to hide behind Parliamentary rules."

The European Parliament's leaders were expected to reject demands that the allowances of Sinn Féin's two MEPs be suspended. A recommendation from Parliament's legal services to the bureau of the president and vice presidents, with whom a final decision rests, was expected to say there is no legal basis for the move. About a dozen MEPs had written to the assembly's quaestors, its disciplinary body, requesting that allowances be withdrawn from Mary Lou McDonald, Sinn Féin's Dublin MEP, and Bairbre de Brún, the party's Northern Ireland representative, because of their party's alleged links to an IRA bank robbery.

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