SF bid to give North MEP seats ‘crass’ and ‘cynical’
SINN FÉIN has formally moved to try to give Ireland’s two extra MEP seats to the North.
In a plan described as “cynical” and “crass” by Fianna Fáil, the party wants the extra seats gained on foot of Brexit taken from Dublin and Ireland South.
Instead they would be assigned to a new constituency of Antrim, Armagh, Derry, Down, Fermanagh and Tyrone.
It is likely Mary Lou McDonald’s party would win at least one of these seats with the other going to a unionist candidate.
The party’s Martina Anderson is set to lose her position in the European Parliament as a result of UK’s exit from the EU.
However, the amendment to the European Parliament Elections Act which will be debated in the Dáil today is all but certain to be defeated.
The Government has previously received legal advice stating it would not be possible to have people in the North vote in European elections after Brexit.
Fianna Fáil’s Darragh O’Brien said attempting to create ‘Ireland North’ is “pretty crass”. “It’s just so cynical it’s not funny. Obviously we have, whether we like it or not, no legal jurisdiction over the North.”
Asked on what basis the Republic could give two seats to Northern Ireland, Sinn Féin said it had commissioned its own legal opinion. It found that while there are constitutional issues regarding external voting for Irish elections, there are no impediments on external voting for EU elections.
The legal advice, seen by the Irish Independent, states: “Brexit is the obvious cause of the disenfranchisement of Irish citizens resident in the North but the remedy lies with Ireland and not with Britain. It has the ability and the tools to provide a solution to this particular challenge.”
Mr O’Brien said Sinn Féin was being “inflammatory”. “Even in the proposal they have kept the six counties separate. Why didn’t they keep the nine counties of Ulster together?” he said.
Sinn Féin said the assertion “is rubbish” because the amendment is “focused on retaining democratic representation for EU citizens in the north of Ireland post-Brexit”.