Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It might be helpful if the procedures for asking questions at the European Parliament were explained. It is not the same as it is in the Oireachtas.

It would be helpful to include an explanation regarding the procedures because it is not the case that one can ask a question every week and it would be helpful to clarify that.

As for the second issue regarding attendance at meetings and as someone who served on three or four different joint committees, one thing one must do - this is the record of the European Parliament - is physically to sign the book each time one attends a committee meeting. In any one day, it would not be unusual to have anything up to ten to 15 different meetings during the course of the day from 9 a.m. onwards. Moreover, when the parliament is sitting in Strasbourg, it sits until midnight. This is not simple and incidentally, if one does not have a set number of attendances at committee meetings, one is not entitled to speaking time in parliament, that is, to be listed as one of the speakers in parliament on a particular topic. Consequently, one must keep a record of committee attendances. While Ms Noelle O'Connell will be able to give the joint committee more details on how this works, it is an issue. There are repercussions arising from not having attendances at meetings and it is important to clarify this point.

As for the 56% attendance at meetings, the big problem members have from a European point of view is the number of committees that exist and one should remember there are sub-committees within committees. For instance, in the case of foreign affairs, there also is the human rights sub-committee. Another issue that is not included concerns the number of motions that members can put down. That figure is not included but it is useful information as it is an effective method. On the human rights sub-committee, for instance, one can table emergency motions. I remember the very first motion I signed back in 2007 was about the opening up of the entire government procedure in Burma or Myanmar, as it is now. Little did I think that within five years, the very motion we had put to the parliament in 2007 would actually come true in real terms. Such motions had and continue to have fairly substantial consequences internationally. Likewise, I was involved in a number of motions pertaining to Gaza and similar areas.

I refer to one issue on which the report is interesting and on which it contains much useful information. I am unsure whether European Movement Ireland wishes to consider the issue regarding European Union directives, about which I have a major concern. Once they are passed and signed off at European level, the timescale given to Oireachtas Members to implement them is 30 months from that point. Has Ireland's record in respect of transposing them and putting them into operation here ever been considered? For instance, I am concerned about one such directive, in which I was directly involved, pertaining to cross-border health care. It finally was signed off in February 2011 but it now is 2014 and my understanding is that it still has not been processed through the system here. We are leaving ourselves open in this regard. To explain to the Chairman, this pertains to cross-border health care, that is, the right to travel to another member state for health care if such health care is not available in one's own country or if there is undue delay. It is an extremely important directive and is about making sure that people have access to health care right across Europe. While it is an important directive, this is about the monitoring of Ireland's own performance with regard to following through on directives and that also would be useful from this committee's perspective. What is Ireland's record in this regard? What is the timescale for the average directive or regulation to come through the Irish system? This is a subject that members might consider in the long term.