Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Vice President and thank her for her forthright presentation. It is useful to be reminded, as she has reminded us today, of the benefits enjoyed by Ireland and other countries as a consequence of their membership of the European Union, not only in terms of funding transfers but also in regard to social interaction, access to markets, ease of travel for citizens and so on. A range of positives has flown from our participation in the European project. Perhaps most important of all, it has been one of the most successful peace projects anywhere in the world.

As the Chairman indicated, this committee has done a great deal of work in terms of assessing public attitudes to Europe, largely as a consequence of the various referenda that were held. Much of this work was concerned with exploring ways of addressing the disconnect between the citizen and the institutions of the European Union. The impression we received from the various witnesses who appeared before the committee in the course of these discussions - witnesses who had engaged in an analysis of the outcome of the various referenda - was that the unsatisfactory level of engagement by the Oireachtas in European Union affairs meant that such matters were considered to be outside the sphere of regular political discourse and did not, therefore, receive the type of publicity within the general media which might encourage citizens to become more engaged. Work remains to be done in this regard, although we saw some progress in the most recent referendum campaign. The difficulty remains that national parliaments tend not to involve themselves in matters in respect of which they do not have clear decision-making powers.

Ms Reding referred to the notion of a democratic deficit and the importance of democratic legitimacy. In recent years, since the beginning of the most difficult economic crisis we have faced, we have seen two countries take the lead in Europe, namely, France and Germany. That spectacle gave the impression to our citizens and perhaps citizens in other jurisdictions that all decisions relating to the European Union would ultimately be decided by two superpowers. In observing that the Commission was largely sidelined during that period I do not mean to cast a negative reflection on that institution. I am well aware of the tremendous work done by the President, Mr. Barroso, and all of his colleagues, the fruits of which are clear in the proposals that are now coming forward. The difficulty, however, is that perception often forces reality. In the context of media coverage and so on, the perception certainly was abroad that two individuals were steering Europe through the crisis or, depending on how one looks at it, steering the crisis itself. Will Ms Reding comment on that?