INDEPENDENT MEP for Ireland South Kathy Sinnott claimed yesterday she had been unfairly portrayed and even vilified in a German television report which showed her with other MEPs claiming €284 in daily expenses at 7am on May 23rd last, prior to departing from Strasbourg.
The German TV channel RTL shows Ms Sinnott and other MEPs, some of them with suitcases, queuing for expenses in the European Parliament building. Most of the MEPs either refuse to answer or dismiss questions from TV reporter Thomas Meier, who is eventually escorted from the premises by security guards.
In the clip, which was made available on the internet at www.youtube.com on June 17th, Ms Sinnott is seen warning the reporter of legal consequences if she is defamed. "Be very careful about using this and what you report about me," she says.
In a video response, also available on Youtube, Ms Sinnott says the clip was "quite unfair in relation to me". She adds: "I worked all night and I spent the time preparing for the next week's committees, sorting and filing, writing, processing hundreds of e-mails".
Her video shows extracts from e-mails she says she had sent during the night, between 22:58pm on May 22nd and 06:41am on May 23rd. "I was awake for almost 24 hours at that stage," she says. Since then she had been "the subject of a stream of hate mail" and her video showed one example which spoke of "f***ing lazy politicians".
Speaking to The Irish Timesyesterday, Ms Sinnott, a prominent anti-Lisbon campaigner in the recent referendum, said she had stayed in her Strasbourg office all night and several security guards and cleaners had seen her there. She had to stay over because of the difficulties in travelling from Strasbourg to her home in Ireland.
Later that day she had taken a parliament minibus to Frankfurt Hahn and then boarded a flight to Co Kerry. Although it would have been quite legal for her to claim expenses even if she had been asleep the night before, she said she would not do that.
The RTL report purports to show a German Green MEP retreating into the lift at the sight of the TV reporter, whom she accuses of "impertinence".
