Eric Byrne (Dublin South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Chairman will be pleasantly surprised to learn I have only one question. The joint committee had a meeting at 11:15 this morning with the United Kingdom's Minister for Europe, David Lidington, MP. Members had a fairly detailed discussion with him and needless to say, I was not terribly happy with the Conservative Party's position on what will happen and where it will lead the British people. However, I refer to an issue has been touched on a number of times and which the joint committee has discussed with the Tánaiste's colleague, the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Creighton. It is a very important issue that appears to affect most countries in Europe, namely, the alienation process, or citizens' withdrawal of participation in or support for the European Union programme. The European Union has suggested that all the relevant committees, presumably including this joint committee and the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, of which I am a member, should engage in a process of oversight of the European programme of legislation and discussion. It appears as though a democratic deficit exists and I am not satisfied that members have been able to engage in filling that gap. On this obligation of national parliaments - which claim they are out of the loop - to be more involved in the European process, and given the composition of democratically elected parliaments, with people running around telling their electorates they have secured schools for their own areas, among other things, and the clientelist base that exists in many countries, people have argued that national parliaments are not really in a position to engage in the serious process of overseeing the activities of the European Union. Does the Tánaiste have a policy in this regard? Does Europe have ideas as to how best to accommodate the national parliaments' representatives in engaging more in the issues of oversight of European policy?