Eric Byrne (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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-----the Peoples Decide Coalition in Spain. There are many more examples. What I am trying to elicit from the witnesses' practical knowledge about what is going on in Europe is whether we should be surprised there are so many groupings going forward? After all we are a community of 28 nations. Within some of those nations, unlike Ireland where we have a single border, two religions Catholic and Protestant, there may be a dozen borders with various minority groups such as Greeks, Hungarians or Poles living there. There are far more complex political issues to deal with than in Ireland. What does it mean for all these disparate weird groups being elected throughout Europe? A little closer to home, Mr. Luke 'Ming' Flanagan, MEP, got 50% of the electoral support in his constituency. Does it mean anything to the Irish electorate that some have the title S&D after their names, some have Christian Democrats or the EPP and, if not, what does it say about the electorate? Let us concentrate on the Irish electorate. Are they really voting for MEPs on the basis that as European MEPs they are going to do something very specific, very political, on behalf of Ireland Inc.? My fear is that it does not, and is not working that way.

My final question centres around the debate on Brian Crowley, MEP. It appears to me that horsetrading is taking place and, if so, how does it work? It seems to me that this man has got a better deal from his new grouping than he had from ALDE. What type of services are these groupings providing to individual MEPs? What type of seduction takes place? A former colleague MEP, who had left the Labour Party which is a social democratic party ended up in the Social Democratic Party grouping in Europe. Can the witnesses analyse what the people of Ireland are telling their MEPs to do on behalf of Ireland Inc.? Does S&D, L&N, MS, M5 or PD after one's name have any relevance whatsoever?