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Marian Harkin with Independent TD Stephen Donnelly last year. Niall Carson/PA Wire/Press Association Images

The 'astronomical' cost of asking a question in the European Parliament

Marian Harkin has hit back at claims that Irish MEPs spent less time in parliament last year – and asked fewer questions.

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENTARIAN MARIAN Harkin has criticised the lack of detail in a report which claimed that Irish MEPs spent less time – and asked fewer questions – in parliament last year than during 2011.

The Independent MEP strongly condemned the European Movement’s data on her and her colleagues’ attendance and question records, calling the report “misleading” and “unforgivable”.

Speaking to Karen Coleman from radioep.ie, Harkin explained that her office had made the decision to reduce the number of questions asked because of the “astronomical” costs to European taxpayers.

“What they didn’t say and what they should have said is that every single question we put down here in this parliament costs taxpayers across Europe – and in Ireland – somewhere between €800 and €1,400 – per question,” she said, adding that every question and answer has to be translated into the 22 official languages of the EU.

She claimed the cost to Europe is between €35 million and €80 million annually.

“Certainly in my office, once we discovered this, we said, ‘We’ll send emails, we’ll make phone calls, we’ll write letters’.”

Commenting on the poor attendance record, Harkin noted that Fianna Fáil MEP Brian Crowley has been ill and unable to sit in sessions.

Ireland currently has 12 MEPs with an attendance record of 83 per cent for plenary sessions in 2012 – a decrease of 2 per cent on 2011. Between them, they raised 455 Parliamentary Questions, a drop from 683 in the previous 12 months.

The European Commission’s response time for questions can be up to six weeks.

Irish MEPs made 365 speeches in parliament, a slight decrease in the year.

Michael D: ‘The EU will become illegitimate without economic reform’

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13 Comments
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    Mute Duncan
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    May 4th 2014, 10:22 AM

    I’d say if fox went on a campaign to say Hillary Clinton was from Kenya a large amount if American would believe it !!

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    Mute Seán Ó Briain
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    May 4th 2014, 2:42 PM

    And yet the same group had no issue with the fact Ted Cruz was born in Canada.

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    Mute gary
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    May 4th 2014, 6:50 PM

    They convinced every one that Obama is from Offaly.

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    Mute cosmological
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    May 4th 2014, 10:23 AM

    Fox News more like an outright fascist organisation.

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    Mute Joe Bergin
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    May 4th 2014, 11:45 AM

    It ain’t perfect but it is health care. I have been voting primarily on this issue all my life. Hilary will improve it up to world class. He is far more prudent than reckless with the military.
    . (Cue the radical, sweaty palmed haters……)

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    Mute Phillip Hogan
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    May 4th 2014, 10:23 AM

    Obama, you are a liar and a hypocrite, but I would take you any day over the ignorant fools over at Fox

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    Mute Duncan
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    May 4th 2014, 10:29 AM

    That’s unreal coming from “Phil Hogan”

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    Mute Phillip Hogan
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    May 4th 2014, 10:35 AM

    How so?

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    Mute Paul Carey
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    May 4th 2014, 10:41 AM

    The FG TD Philip!)

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    Mute Duncan
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    May 4th 2014, 10:42 AM

    TD !!!! Phil Hogan !!!

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    Mute Jim Flavin
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    May 4th 2014, 1:06 PM

    Obama, you are a liar and a hypocrite,”
    - Yes – he is the lesser evil – but still evil .

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    Mute John Bransfield
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    May 4th 2014, 11:54 AM

    I wonder what real Americans think of him joking around at a dinner last night while new data shows the American economy has officially stalled. Hillary will get smashed in 2016 if he keeps telling jokes at dinner functions instead of trying to get people back to work.

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    Mute Glen
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    May 4th 2014, 11:56 AM

    Well his ratings have plummeted so if that’s any indication.

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    Mute Nicole McCormack
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    May 4th 2014, 12:19 PM

    Obama for all his faults saved the US from certain economic crash asta result of the republican knobs. Imagine the damage if Fox News and co get the Tea Party elected. A few more invasions to satisfy the religious right and mass unemployment with the poor suffering most. Nightmare. Good joke tho!!

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    Mute John Bransfield
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    May 4th 2014, 12:29 PM

    How has he saved it from a crash? You know the economic collapse happened before he got elected so despite it being “republican knobs” fault it was them that dealt with it not Obama. History will judge his time in office as an economic disaster (let’s not even get into his foreign policy). If the Republicans had got elected then its 100% certain that the American economy would be registering a lot higher growth than the 0.01% it is currently. The left/socialists don’t have a clue how to fix a financial mess, just look how good the Conservatives have done in the U.K since they inherited the economic mess from labor.

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    Mute Audra B
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    May 4th 2014, 12:53 PM

    As an American… The WH Correspondents’ Dinner is a longstanding tradition that is somewhat akin to a free for all roast. Obama is just a heckuva lot funnier than recent previous presidents (although Reagan usually wowed them). So no, no one here, except people who already hate Obama and would hate him if he saved puppies and kittens every day of the week, is saying anything of the sort.

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    Mute John Everyman
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    May 4th 2014, 12:54 PM

    If you think there are any socialists in positions of power in the states, you really need to brush up on your politics reading.

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    Mute Jim Flavin
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    May 4th 2014, 1:05 PM

    just look how good the Conservatives have done in the U.K since they inherited the economic mess from labor.”
    - UK is in severe debt – and poverty levels have risen since Cameron and co came in – but yes they have a housing bubble – and oh I think we have been here before .!!

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    Mute Jim Flavin
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    May 4th 2014, 1:08 PM

    Obama is just a heckuva lot funnier than recent previous presidents ”
    – Yes – he is a good talker and a brilliant liar – but if he did to puppies and kittens what he does to humans – he would be out of office .

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    Mute Jim Flavin
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    May 4th 2014, 1:10 PM

    Imagine the damage if Fox News and co get the Tea Party elected. A few more invasions to satisfy the religious right and mass unemployment with the poor suffering most. Nightmare.”
    – I don’t know – maybe best let the dogs loose – and let the US public really feel it – it might waken them up .??

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    Mute Nicole McCormack
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    May 4th 2014, 1:16 PM

    Only a deluded right wing republican could have such a view. It’s Labour by the way not Labor. Bush had the US economy in free fall with spiralling public debt. The conservatives are right wing in the UK but the Tea party religious nuts are off the scale on the right. Obama is no socialist at best he is centre right and probably the Dane as the UK conservatives. I hope for the sake of the US and the world that Hillary gets elected. And as for foreign policy, the US is driven by its military and major corporations and when the republicans are in power you add the religious right to the motley crew. Bush has the blood of hundreds of thousands on his hands and should be tried as a war criminal. So go stuff your republican bull where the sun don’t shine

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    Mute David Burke
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    May 4th 2014, 1:22 PM

    John, can I call you John?

    The economic numbers come out on Fridays, did you check them?

    288,000 seasonally adjusted jobs created in April which is a decent surprise on the upside and the adjusted the figures February and March upwards which had looked a little weak. So unemployment is down to 6.3% which is probably 1% of the new long term NAIRU.

    It’s fine to not like Obama but you can’t make up the numbers. The economy is growing fine in the US but construction obviously took a hammering in the storms. Try not to overreact to much to seasonal data.

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    Mute Killjoy The Second
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    May 4th 2014, 1:23 PM

    I would love to see Nicole’s reaction if either Ted Cruz or Rand Paul get elected..

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    Mute James Comiskey
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    May 4th 2014, 2:15 PM

    Your growth figures are only wrong by a factor of 10 but hey ho

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    Mute Philip Gerard
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    May 4th 2014, 3:46 PM

    John, the states just added more jobs last month than it has in years. The unemployment level is at it’s lowest since Bush tanked the economy in 2008. The previous 2 months hiring numbers were also revised up. The stock market has doubled since Obama took office. Don’t let facts get in the way of your ignorance. As far as joking around at a dinner, Bush did it while 5,000 American and 100,000 Iraqis were getting slaughtered because of a lie.

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    Mute Joe Bergin
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    May 4th 2014, 9:38 PM

    Unemployment down to 6.3 with an average of 240,000 new jobs each of the last 3 months…baby boomers dropping out but that is a function of structural problems for older people once unemployed and ,sometimes, the choice being available to call it quits….
    when you hear the echo of FOX you know there is no truth in what you hear….

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    Mute Joe Bergin
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    May 4th 2014, 9:50 PM

    FOX was in power with Bush, effectively. A war we never needed and were deceived into losing 5000 troops and fecklessly destroying an enemy of Iran in the biggest favor THEY have gotten since Reagan! A city underwater while many national guard helicopters were off to the ends of the earth. A destroyed economy rescued by basically paying off the guilty parties to allow the economy to sputter on — bonuses all around!!

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    Mute Summer Bay Devil
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    May 4th 2014, 11:19 AM

    He’s a gas man altogether.
    EADC

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    Mute Pilib O Muiregan
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    May 4th 2014, 1:20 PM

    He is not the president America had hoped for due in a large way to congress and the tea nutters.

    My only major criticism would be the drone program giving one man a licence to kill at the stroke Off a pen is murder whatever way you see it. I’d say the Nobel Peace Prize committee are kicking themselves.

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    Mute Paul O'Grady
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    May 4th 2014, 8:04 PM

    There’s a serious inaccuracy in your article that I have to draw your attention to – Veep is not a comedy

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