Ms Lynn Boylan:

I will try to get through as many questions as possible. The first was about attendance by MEPs at this committee. It is difficult because of the days on which the committee sits. Even a Thursday afternoon is not ideal because some of us would have committee meetings. From a practical point of view, there are constituency weeks allocated which MEPs spend in their constituencies and which would be best for any MEP to attend the committee. The details of these weeks are available on the website.

This engagement is very important for us. Mr. Hayes has brought it up, not only in relation to this committee but also the sectoral committees. Sectoral committees in the Oireachtas should pay particular attention to the sectoral committees on which Irish MEPs are not represented. There is an Irish MEP on the Committee for Regional Development, Ms Martina Anderson, who is also a representative on the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, and I am sure she would be happy to brief the committee on her work on those two committees. It is important for the sectoral committees to flag any issues they believe need the attention of the Irish MEPs at a committee on which we are not represented. I invite committees to send an e-mail to flag it with us and we can monitor it. It is impossible to monitor the minutes of all the committees. Mr. Hayes can confirm that the number of e-mails one receives just from one's own committees is phenomenal. Therefore it would be on the basis of Deputies keeping an eye on the relevant portfolios and flagging issues with us. Equally, we can flag important issues at our committees with Deputies.

There were a number of questions on the Palestine issue. Deputy Crowe asked about the reasons given to refuse the delegation admission to Gaza. When we first requested permission, the Israeli Foreign Minister said that they were only allowing access to people who were delivering aid to Gaza. We appealed that on the basis that the European Union provides a significant amount of aid to the region and that to best assess what aid was required, MEPs had to go and find out that information first-hand. That appeal was again refused on the basis that we were not delivering immediate aid to the region. During our trip we went to the Red Crescent centre in Jerusalem and we saw two full warehouses of immediate aid equipment, including medical equipment, antibiotics, wheelchairs and crutches. The Red Crescent was awaiting permission from Israel to bring that immediate aid into Gaza. We therefore find the actions of the Israeli Foreign Minister repulsive because he used an excuse not to allow us in when they were actually also stopping immediate aid going to the area. We do not believe that excuse and we intend in the GUE-NGL group to appeal this decision to the Israeli Government every month on the grounds that we want access to Gaza in order that we can best represent European taxpayers' money going into the area.

Senator Reilly asked about taxpayers' money being spent on infrastructure which seems to be completely destroyed every two years with no consequences for Israel in terms of reimbursing the European Union for the destruction of this infrastructure. A resolution was brought to the floor of the plenary session of the European Parliament on 17 September demanding reparations from Israel for the EU-funded projects destroyed during repeated aggression in Gaza and the West Bank. This was, regrettably, voted down. It seems MEPs are quite happy to waste Irish and European taxpayers' money by rebuilding over and over again. This is something we will keep on the agenda.

The boycott seems to be having some success, especially with G4S, the security company. G4S has come under great pressure on this issue and many member states have pulled contracts with it. I hope the Irish Government would consider doing the same because I know that G4S is tendering for contracts in the Department of Social Protection. G4S has said it will not renew its contract with Israel in 2017 because of the pressure it has come under, so the boycott campaign is having an effect.

On the peace process, we felt when we were out there that one needs a partner to peace. We know from our experience in the North that both sides must be willing to engage and it appears the Israeli Government is not prepared to engage in a peace process at the moment. The only way it will be forced to the table to negotiate is if it comes under intense pressure from the international community. The European Union needs to step up to the plate on this by insisting that Israel ends the disproportionate aggression against the Palestinian people.

There was also a question on youth unemployment and the Youth Guarantee. The previous Commissioner gave a presentation on this topic to the plenary session in September. There is a great deal of concern that it is failing in its purpose in that member states are not drawing down the money as expected. We have put forward a proposal to have a full review of the Youth Guarantee scheme, paying particular attention to the programme countries, including Ireland, because we believe the Youth Guarantee was grossly underfunded from the start and did not have achievable goals. We must also monitor how individual member states are monitoring the Youth Guarantee. Certainly in Ireland we have concerns that there was no provision for facilitating single parents to get back into the workplace, for example, and a large number of them are unemployed. There was no facility either for the 10,000 people with disabilities to access the Youth Guarantee. We are hopeful that initiative will be taken up by the Committee for Employment and Social Affairs, of which I am a member, and I would be happy to report back to this committee on that.

On TTIP and the other question Senator Reilly asked about fracking, we have very serious concerns about the transatlantic trade agreement. Going on the feelings that were evident when this was debated in the plenary session two weeks ago, there is much concern within the groups about the lack of transparency in the negotiations. We have serious concerns about the investor state dispute settlement mechanism which allows industry to bring a government to court. We will oppose that at any level if it is part of the trade agreement. It comes into play in terms of fracking, because American fracking companies have sued the Canadian Government, so we want to ensure there are robust legal protections for member states if they want to oppose fracking and we want to ensure they would be entitled to do so. As I highlighted regarding GMOs, we cannot allow a situation where a democratic government wants to oppose something happening on its territory and industry can take it to court on the basis of competitiveness. It cannot be tolerated.

Regarding some of the other questions Deputy Kyne raised about the Commissioner, we stand over our objection to Phil Hogan.

We think he is the wrong man for the job. I am putting on the green jersey. We heard earlier that Jean-Claude Juncker failed to meet the 40% target he set for female Commissioners. The Irish Government really missed a trick in this regard. Mairéad McGuinness is over there. While I disagree with her politics, I accept that she is absolutely competent. Unlike Phil Hogan, there is no controversy around her. She knows the agriculture brief inside out. She is very familiar with the institutions. We think Ireland missed a trick on this occasion. The number of female Commissioners has not increased under Jean-Claude Juncker. We have the same number of female Commissioners that we had in the past. We have concerns. Deputy Durkan spoke about the housing crisis. I remind him that Phil Hogan cut the funding for social housing by 90% during his term in the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government.