MEP Pat the Cope Gallagher has accused Sinn Féin candidate Matt Carthy of deliberately misleading the public on his voting record ahead of the Euro elections.
Pat the Cope Gallagher.
The Donegal MEP has strongly dismissed two misleading accusations from the Sinn Féin candidate, in the Midlands-North West concerning a vote on the Troika Enquiry Report, which occurred in the European Parliament in Strasbourg on the 13 March.
Firstly, Sinn Féin has stated that Mr. Gallagher voted against retrospective recapitalisation of the Irish banks.
In response, Mr. Gallagher has stated “This statement is totally misleading and inaccurate. I personally drafted the original text on recapitalisation, tabled the text and then worked to secure cross party consensus in the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee for the amendment.
“The amendment was successfully included in the report adopted by the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee and subsequently was endorsed by the Plenary with 489 in favour and 42 against. My amendment specifically calls for the full implementation of the June 2012 commitment by EU leaders to break the vicious circle between bank and sovereign debt.
“Furthermore, my amendment calls on EU leaders to substantially alleviate Ireland’s burden of bank debt. Having tabled this amendment, and secured widespread support, I of course voted for it at plenary.”
Secondly, Sinn Féin has stated that Mr. Gallagher abstained on a vote calling for the release of the Trichet letter to the late Minister of Finance, Brian Lenihan.
In response, Mr. Gallagher said “I want to clearly state that I voted in favour of this amendment. That said, my vote was not recorded correctly due to a technical fault. The official record of the European Parliament was updated immediately when I became aware that my vote was not recorded properly, to show that I voted in favour.
“Why would I not vote in support of this request? It is ludicrous to claim that I don’t support the publication of this letter. Of course, I fully support the release of this letter, as doing so is the interest of transparency. It is vitally important that we all know the extent of pressure that was exerted on the late Minister by the ECB.”
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