Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I join the Cathaoirleach in welcoming the Minister of State. I also will begin by paying tribute to the late John Bruton. I was privileged to be a member of the rainbow Government from 1994 to 1997 under his Taoiseachship and found him to be an excellent chairman of the Cabinet and an exemplary statesman. We all have had our opportunities to pay tribute to him but it is appropriate at a European affairs committee, given his absolute passion for the development of Europe and his understanding of Ireland's role in it, that we pay tribute to him here. I also thank the Minister of State for his hospitality during our recent visit to Brussels. Some of the discussions outside the formal discussions are the most interesting, for which I thank him.

A number of issues came up at the GAC and maybe one or two that did not but which are more important in many ways in the context of the full European Council meeting that followed it. Obviously, foremost in all our minds is Gaza. On the issue of cessation of hostilities there, a ceasefire apparently now is growing momentum within the European Council. Hopefully the initiative under way right now by the US Secretary of State might bear fruit in the next day or two. I would be interested in the Minister of State's perspective on his discussions outside the formal setting with colleagues to see if the momentum developed by Ireland, Spain, Belgium and others s growing and if there are other moves in terms of strengthening our pressure points on Israel to bring about a ceasefire.

Similarly, on Ukraine, obviously we welcome the decision of the European Council to make the allocation to Ukraine to sustain it over the next four years.

It is interesting that the Minister of State had discussions directly with the Hungarian secretary of state. Did the obstructionist attitude of Hungary to so many issues form part of the discussions with the secretary of state? Did the Minister of State set out the concerns of the rest of the Union that one member state would now seek to exploit almost every issue for its own advantage with regard to how that can be addressed?

I will conclude on two issues that were formally discussed. Obviously, we have concerns about qualified majority voting when it comes to taxation issues. We read and had presented to us the German-French position paper that went to the full Council. The Minister of State was talking about a new German-Slovenian paper and although I have not seen that, maybe it is in circulation and I would be interested to hear what exactly is proposed. I think we would support the extension of QMV to issues like enlargement where countries are now being held up by individual countries putting in unreasonable bilateral conditionality that would not apply in any normal expansion. I am interested in the Minister of State's view on that.

On the regulation of lobbying, I was privileged to bring in our own regulation of lobbying legislation, which was an exemplar at the time, and we were invited to present not only in Europe but elsewhere on how to do that. In the context of some of the recent scandals in the European Parliament, the regulation of lobbying on a Europe-wide basis is essential. I would welcome the Minister of State’s update on the likelihood of that happening in the foreseeable future.