Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In the case of some of the instruments we have suggested that they are better left as they are until they come up for review. However, there are equally valid views on the other side. There is an extraordinary amount of suspicion that the Commission is always trying to impinge on State powers. Permit me to defend the Commission to some degree. Often what are proposed are common sense administrative measures to make the European Union work more efficiently. Often those who most oppose such common sense measures are the people who constantly complain that the European Union is too bureaucratic and makes life far too difficult unnecessarily for business and everyone else. We need to take a balanced approach and this is not the most serious proposal in the world. We should participate in it with an open mind and in so far as there are issues of concern to colleagues we should play what role we can in producing a mediated agreed outcome.