Dr. Gavin Barrett:

It is difficult. There are no easy answers. We have to ask whether a mandate system or scrutiny system would be workable, but on the other hand, countries with mandate systems and scrutiny systems tend to be those in which Ministers are more respectful of national parliaments. There are two sides to this and I take the Deputy's point.

He also raised the issue of the centralised committee problem and how difficult it would be to get reports made to the European Union affairs committee, as the committee might have to meet every day of the week. I do not know the answer to that, but we could ask the Finns. We should get somebody from Finland over here to talk about it, because they have made it work. It can be done and it has been done by a country with the same population as this country.