Dr. Gavin Barrett:

I did pick up some disagreements on the fate of the Seanad and whether that was desirable. I would first like to comment on the Chairman's point about Ireland's Presidency, which was enormously successful. My points are not directed at this Government, which has been better than most in respect of ministerial attendance. This has been a four-decade-long practice and there really has not been sufficient attendance of Ministers here for us to be able to say that ministerial performance in Council meetings is rendered sufficiently accountable. I am delighted to hear that a submission will be made to the social dialogue as well.

Suggestions to gain media attention are so difficult, because I find European issues fascinating but I must acknowledge they are not always at the top of the list of what people want to read. Outreach programmes would be one suggestion. Structured involvement by particular parties might be another. In other words, the committee might invite regularly the same parties, such as farmers' organisations, trade unions and so on, to appear here. Perhaps the committee should copy the approach of the National Forum on Europe, which might involve taking it out of the committee room and having such meetings in a larger forum and getting people in on a regular basis to express their views. I notice that the television broadcasts of these proceedings are confined to UPC, which reaches about 20% of the population. I do not know if it is possible to increase that. If it were, that would be a great contribution and would put the Oireachtas into the living rooms of the country, if anyone was prepared to switch it on.