Councillor Constance Hanniffy:

I will deal with some of the key themes of the work we undertake as members of the Committee of the Regions. Since it was established in 1994, the committee has continued to evolve and strengthen its position in the various treaty revisions that took place and it also sought to broaden its remit beyond the purely advisory function which was originally provided for in the treaty. As well as adopting opinions as an advisory body, we have been extending our influence as a political assembly and as a facilitator and we are establishing platforms to facilitate the involvement of local and regional government and authorities in discussions on key EU policy areas.

One such policy area is the Europe 2020 strategy - subsidiary and cross-border co-operation. On the Europe 2020 strategy, the Committee of the Regions is active in monitoring its implementation, which is central to virtually all the EU programmes and policies with which we are dealing up to the year 2020. In its mid-term review of the Europe 2020 strategy, the Committee of the Regions, indicated that it will advance a number of proposals on how to make the strategy more effective, how to better use EU funding resources, how to improve governance and how to improve implementation arrangements. Many of these points are relevant to us in Ireland as participants in the European semester process, which includes the national reform programmes, or NRPs, as we refer to them. They set out our national targets and measures to achieve the strategy's headline targets. In Brussels our discussions, as members of the Committee of the Regions, are dominated by the Europe 2020 strategy and the European semester. However, it is fair to say there is limited discussion of these issues in Ireland either nationally or locally. The national reform programmes submitted by Ireland in 2010, which are reviewed annually, have not provided any meaningful or systematic consultation in the drafting stages and they have not included any local or regional dimension despite the role local authorities are meant to play and the extra roles which they will take on now, under the new local government Act, in economic development, enterprise creation and planning and sustainable development. I would venture to say that few are aware of the NRPs. This reinforces what my colleagues have said about a lack of informed understanding and structural engagement on EU issues.

Another important issue with which we deal daily in the Committee of the Regions is subsidiarity. Since entry into force of the Lisbon treaty, the Committee of the Regions has the right to bring an action before the European Court of Justice on grounds of infringement of the subsidiarity principle. To this end the committee has established its own subsidiarity monitoring network to facilitate the exchange of information between the local and regional authorities in Europe regarding the various legislative proposals of the Commission. The Irish delegation is a member of the Committee of the Regions' monitoring network and it will be very useful for us to be aware of instances whenever the Houses of the Oireachtas, whether it be the Dáil or the Seanad, issue yellow cards on EU legislative proposals. That would be certainly something that would be of benefit.

The Committee of the Regions concluded an agreement with the European Parliament some weeks ago which aims to strengthen working relationships between the institutions on political and administrative matters. This includes enhancing the linkage between the Committee of the Regions and the European Parliament committees and rapporteurs. There will be a greater exchange of views and information from now on. This agreement makes provision to include the participation of the Committee of the Regions and the 28 national parliaments in the European Parliament's European Parliamentary Week, which we would view as a welcome development. Furthermore, the agreement with the European Parliament into which we have just entered introduces a territorial impact assessment procedure whereby we in the committee will seek to assess the likely impacts of proposed legislation across EU regions at NUTS 2 level.

At present the European Commission is required to undertake an impact assessment on its legislative proposals. As part of this process, it is required to assess the financial and administrative burdens that any proposal will place on either local or regional authorities. However, the experience of the Committee of the Regions is that the Commission impact assessment process is not sufficiently robust. Therefore, the Committee of the Regions will initiate a process of territorial impact assessment this year with a view to pushing the European Commission and the European Parliament to improve how better they take into account the impact of legislation or legislative proposals at local and regional levels. We see this as a positive development to enhance the work of the Committee of the Regions.

I would suggest that with increasing EU competencies, with the Committee of the Regions enhancing its abilities to influence the EU decision-making process and given the restructuring of local government that is under way in this country, there is an opportunity to better represent Irish local and regional interests in the channels available. This topic will be developed by my colleague, Councillor Paul O'Donoghue. I thank the members for their attention.