SIR – Last July, Brian Crowley, our non-attending MEP, promised to make a response soon regarding his call for resignation and hand over to his FF substitute Kieran Hartley.
SIR – Last July, Brian Crowley, our non-attending MEP, promised to make a response soon regarding his call for resignation and hand over to his FF substitute Kieran Hartley. The much-expected statement from Crowley never materialised and he continues, through long-term illness, to absent himself from Brussels and Strasbourg thus providing those who elected him in good faith with no EU representation.
Crowley got elected under the Fianna Fáil ticket, but the FF party subsequently withdrew the party whip when he demonstrated his true and unexpected colours in joining the 75-member EU Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists Group, an inspiration of David Cameron, which now broadly represents EU-scepticism and far-right politics.
Crowley has never explained why he chose this group to work with and how Brexit and the loss of his British Conservative colleagues will impact on EU influence. Again, with Brexit in mind, it would surely be important for Simon Coveney to have active MEPs working to ensure hard border and other issues are addressed.
Crowley appears to have no Strasbourg or Brussels attendance record since his election in any case and enquiries to him are brushed aside with EU position statements rather than any advice on his activity. He is listed as a member of the Delegation for relations with Palestine, but again he appears to have done nothing in that delegation.
Crowley lists his income as between 5k and 10K per month and no doubt would have a pension to match his long service so it’s not as if his hand-over would cause him any financial pain.
Surely now Brian Crowley can respect those who he is failing to represent and do the honourable thing and resign?
Bob Storey,
Skibbereen.
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