Dara Murphy (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have already done it, as I said. We have given up more time in this discussion as to whether I am on or off. Clearly, I am on and discussing matters relevant to the Minister of State. I appreciate that the Minister of State has a role in this regard and it could well be raised at the General Affairs Council.

Two weeks ago the Secretary General of the European Commission appeared before the committee. It is very heartening that the issue of the Irish working in the Commission is being addressed urgently, as we discussed last week. I was not aware that the Minister of State was so on top of the issue.

I recently went to our university - I should say one of the universities in Ireland since mention of Cork seems to upset the Chairman. The issue of languages was addressed. One of the professors there mentioned the languages that students are taking concurrent with their degree courses. I studied French in UCC and we read works by Albert Camus and the impressionists. However, there is not a course in French targeted at, for example, people studying for engineering, medicine, science or technology degrees. Rather than trying to come with a one-size-fits-all university language degree, they should be more tailored to the courses people are doing so that when they leave universities they have a language basis that complements the course they studied.

The Minister of State mentioned the European semester is also on the agenda for the General Affairs Council. Two weeks ago, the Chairman and I attended the European Parliamentary Week. Ireland's budgetary cycle now appears to be out of sync. We are moving to a budgetary process of country-specific recommendations, draft budgets and so on, with the final point being the budget. Are there discussions about reaching a similar budgetary process in every country? Do we need to get our committee structure in front of the budgetary process as is done in Sweden and many other European countries?