Comment: "It'll be grand," they said when making the Irish people vote a SECOND time on the so-called 'Lisbon Treaty', which gifted Brussels centralized legislative powers in 2008...


berlaymont brussels eu
Many people in Ireland today fail to realise that 70% of the country's legislation comes from Europe, a Fine Gael MEP from Kerry has said.

The remarks were made by Ireland South MEP Seán Kelly on Friday morning this week during an interview on Radio Kerry's 'Kerry Today' show with Jerry O'Sullivan, after the MEP was asked to respond to a rumour that he may give up his seat in Europe to run in the next general election in Kerry.

Kelly shot down the notion, saying that the idea didn't come from him.

"I did speak to Fine Gael," he said, adding that they had asked him to consider running for the Dáil.

"But I told them that my commitment was to Europe, that I hoped to run in the elections on June 7th next year, that I was the first Kerry person to be elected to the European parliament to represent Kerry and Ireland South, and that I have a lot of experience now and do a lot of good work."


Comment: No doubt the pay and perks are better too.


"Many people don't realise that 70% of legislation comes from Europe, and that in the Dáil [Dublin's parliament] they're often only transposing what's decided," he said.

"So I think I probably can contribute better to Kerry and to Ireland by continuing hopefully where I am."

During the course of the interview, he also said that "we have to get to grips with social media abuse of politicians."

"In particular, I think female politicians get more than men," he said, adding: "I think that's something we may have to legislate for in Europe."

"One of the things which I just don't understand is how we can tolerate a situation where people can have anonymous accounts on social media - sometimes multiple accounts - and abuse the living daylights out of any politicians regardless of what they say.

"Even if you put up a tweet and say 'Best of luck to Kerry in the All Ireland', you'll get a series of abusive responses based on something like migration, or something else like housing and so forth. And they just keep hammering it day-in and day-out."

He added that while he typically just ignores comments directed at him, for some elected representatives it puts them off politics and makes them want to pursue a different career path.

The full Radio Kerry interview can be viewed via this link.