A Fine Gael MEP has defended the decision not to vote in favour of an EU resolution to step up search and rescue efforts in the Mediterranean Sea.
There was outrage in the European Parliament last Thursday after the motion was shot down by just two votes.
All of Fine Gael's MEPs - Sean Kelly, Mairead McGuinness, Maria Walsh and Frances Fitzgerald - voted against it.
Waterford Green Party MEP Grace O’Sullivan described their decision as "shocking and disgraceful".
Sean Kelly says he and his colleagues consistently supported efforts to save lives in the Mediterranean, but the resolution needed more work.
He claims people traffickers would have been able to gain access to the intelligence information being shared between boats in the region.
The vote was held just one day after 39 people were found dead in a lorry in Essex, believed to have been smuggled into the UK.
