Councillor Paul O'Donoghue:

I will deal in my presentation with the issue of enhancement and involvement at local and regional level in the EU process. As members of the Committee of the Regions, our experiences have given us insight into how EU policies and laws are made. Our experiences have also shown us that at national and local government levels we could do better in terms of engagement in the process. First, we need greater awareness in a timely fashion of what is being proposed at EU level in order that there is sufficient time to act on or react to the information provided. We then need to use whatever expertise and experience is available to assess proposals and set out the priorities for the country and local government. We need to avail of all the opportunities and channels to use this information to inform an Irish national approach and to use it in the EU decision-making process. That said, we must operate within the systems that apply in Ireland and so we have three modest proposals to make to the committee, which we hope it will consider.

As members will have noted, representation of the Committee of the Regions comprises members of a diverse number of political parties and none, yet we are all agreed that the three modest proposals being put forward would enhance our work in Europe and enhance interaction between us and Members of the Oireachtas. First, we propose the establishment of a forum for EU representatives, bringing together members of this committee, the Minister of State with responsibility for European affairs, the Irish MEPs, Irish members of the Committee of the Regions and of the Economic and Social Committee and other relevant stakeholders to discuss policy issues in order that we could share insights and help develop common positions to enable Ireland to maximise its influence within the EU institutional architecture. This initiative could be led by this committee which could initially meet to discuss identified national priorities in the European Commission's annual work programme. Second, we recommend that the Government develop a medium-term strategy for our membership of the European Union setting out priority issues and the vision for our membership as the EU evolves. Third, we favour a more open and structured process of consultation by all Departments on EU policy proposals. This would help promote awareness and provide an opportunity for local government and civil society to engage on the key issues. We suggest the European semester and the annual review of the national reform programme would be a good starting point for such a process. That said, at local government level there is some work to be done in terms of creating awareness and of building the capacity to engage.

Current discussion on the EU tends to focus either on funding or issues that cause division, including environmental protection, septic tanks and so on. In our view, engagement on such issues at the earliest possible stage in order to shape policy could be worthwhile. While there is some consultation between lead Departments, the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government and the County and City Managers Association, there is no consultation at political level. There are various avenues for input to the EU policy-making process. It is vital that local authorities develop the capacity for EU interaction and involvement. This will need recognition not only at political level but by the city and county managers.

More active engagement in the policy-making process and better awareness of proposed EU legislation can only help when it comes to more effective transposition, implementation and compliance. This should lead to reduced incidence of the European Commission taking Ireland to court, thus attracting fines for the country. Specifically, in relation to better involvement of the local and new regional assemblies, we suggest that there is a role for the Oireachtas at the pre-legislative stage in establishing a more structured mechanism for consultation with local government on proposals from the European Commission that have implications at local government level. Allied to this, the system for transposing EU legislation into national law needs to take a far more inclusive approach. The new regional assemblies will build on the current responsibilities at regional level as managing authorities for the regional operation of programmes and in implementing EU projects by way of enhanced economic planning responsibilities. We believe it is vital that they have the capacity to make a formalised input into assessing relevant EU legislative and policy proposals from the local and regional perspective to complement their EU funding and EU projects. We would be pleased to assist in any way possible in facilitating better interaction of policy consultation and response through the EU national, regional and local channels.

We met a number of years ago with the then committee on European scrutiny. We had hoped for follow-on from that meeting by way of interaction between us as members of the Committee of the Regions and the members of that committee. Unfortunately, that follow-on did not happen. I have no doubt, given the enthusiasm of members of this committee for the European project, that there will be greater interaction into the future with the Committee of the Regions and this committee. We believe that if we are not informed of national policy on a given issue, it will be difficult for us to represent the country in Brussels. All nine of us, who, as I said earlier, are members of all parties and none, are anxious that detailed consideration be given to our proposals, which we believe are a modest step but one in the right direction.