Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan to donate half his TD earnings to local projects

Newly elected Independent TD Luke 'Ming' Flanagan is following through on his promise of giving half his wages to fund projects in his constituency.

The pro-cannabis campaigner, who still smokes marijuana, will pump half of his €93,000 salary into "recreational facilities" in his Roscommon-South Leitrim constituency.

Ming has chosen not to hand the chunk of his earnings back to the State as he believes they would just put it into the banks.

"If this country was being ran in such a way that all that money wasn't fired into Anglo-Irish Bank ... I would be delighted for it to go back directly to the State," he said.

Mr Flanagan also said he still believes cannabis should be legalized in Ireland.

"I feel very strongly about the fact that every year anything up to €600m goes into the hands of the type of people who shot Veronica Guerin,” he told the Irish Independent.

"I would prefer that money to go into the legitimate taxed economy and to be spent on swimming pools and recreational facilities for young people.

"We've tried to impose this law for three decades. That law has failed miserably and when you keep banging your head against a brick wall and it doesn't fall, you should stop doing it.

"We have two options here -- we leave it in the hands of the criminals or we bring it into the legitimate taxed economy."