March 2011, one month after being elected to Dáil Éireann, Flanagan announced that he would cease his smoking of cannabis while in Ireland in order to protect his family and focus on the issues for which he stands. He said he still intended to smoke cannabis when abroad. This followed a formal complaint lodged to the Garda Síochána by a Fianna Fáil councillor from Kilkenny about his cannabis use. Flanagan said that: "...my wife and children are the most important people on the planet to me and I don't want my kids to witness the Garda calling to the house." He said he would continue to campaign for the legalisation of cannabis. In July 2011, Flanagan was linked to an incident in which a Dáil microphone picked up a conversation he had with fellow independent TDs Shane Ross and Mick Wallace. During the exchange the trio appeared to be disparaging the appearance of Fine Gael TD Mary Mitchell O'Connor. Wallace initiated the conversation by saying "Miss Piggy has toned it down a bit today". Flanagan was heard saying "they’d want to ban her wearing pink" and Ross commented that "she normally wears the most garish colours". On 2 November 2011, Flanagan walked out of the Dáil amid a heated disagreement with Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Simon Coveney over turf-cutting rights. Flanagan had observed that his Fine Gael constituency colleague Frank Feighan had promised before the 2011 general election that he would "sign his name in blood" if that was required in order to oppose a turf-cutting ban, with Coveney responding by saying populism was a dangerous thing. Flanagan then said, "Populism and bondholders. I am leaving the chamber"; Coveney then told him to "go on and walk out in protest". Flanagan retorted, "My daddy did not give me a seat." This referred to the fact that Coveney had been elected in a by-election after his father Hugh Coveney TD died in an accident in March 1998. On 15 December 2011, Flanagan helped launch a nationwide campaign against a proposed household charge being brought in as part of the 2012 Irish budget. In April 2012, Flanagan stated he would be urging people to vote 'No' in the referendum on ratification of the European Fiscal Compact Treaty, on the grounds that Ireland would lose power to bigger countries in the European Union, such as Germany and France. He also