Dominic Hannigan (Meath East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State mentioned towards the concluding part of his contribution that the friends of the Presidency group will meet again in early December and said that to date there have been three meetings to which we have actively contributed on issues such as how national parliaments might be supported in their EU engagement. As the Minister of State will be aware, this committee has had similar discussions in the past on how we can improve our liaison not only with the EU institutions, but with our fellow committees in the other member states. It would be interesting to hear what is being done at Government level as to how the Government thinks these links can be improved. Has the Minister of State had any insight or input into what was said at these meetings? If so, it would be great to hear it but, if not, perhaps he would report back at the next meeting on that specific point. What are we saying in terms of how national parliaments' links could be improved?