Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. I attended the launch of the European Movement's Accountability Report for 2012 this morning which shows that the average Irish ministerial attendance at meetings for 2012 increased by 11%. In fact, we are now at 97%, coming in joint second, which is very welcome and demonstrates the commitment of the Minister of State and the Government. Irish attendance in Europe is extremely important because there is so much change happening at European level, affecting all of us.

As someone who has served in the European Parliament, I am very interested in the question of the scrutiny of EU legislation. I note from the report launched this morning that Ireland now has 12 MEPs but is only represented on 14 of the 20 committees of the European Parliament. It is quite likely that we will lose an MEP at the next European elections, which means that our MEPs will be sitting on even fewer committees. That means that we must be more watchful of what is going on in the European Parliament and across all of the EU institutions.

It means we need to be more watchful with regard to developments in the European Parliament and other EU institutions.

On the issue of Oireachtas involvement in European Union affairs, I am not convinced that scrutiny of EU legislation by committees is working. The best example is the role of the Joint Committee on Health and Children in scrutinising an EU directive on medical devices. When it was recommended that members rubber-stamp the directive I asked what consultation the joint committee had undertaken with medical device companies. It transpired that the committee had not engaged in any such consultation and it emerged in subsequent correspondence with the relevant companies that they were not satisfied with the proposals in the directive. This is clear evidence of the problem we have with EU scrutiny.

This issue is connected to the referendum on the future of the Seanad. The Seanad should have a role in scrutinising European Union legislation. Given that the Dáil is processing a significant volume of legislation, the Upper House could usefully assist in scrutinising EU legislation. We should consider options other than the abolition of the Seanad. Scrutiny of EU legislation could be a major element in the reform of the House.

Discussions in the House help inform people. The cross-border health care directive of February 2011 has not yet been transposed into Irish legislation. Given that national authorities have 30 months to transpose EU legislation into law, we have approximately three months to transpose the directive. Many people, including Members, are not familiar with the directive. This is another example of legislation that affects all of our lives. This is one way to further improve scrutiny of European affairs, even within the existing structures. Scrutiny should also be done before the eight week window commences.