Ms Barbara Nolan:

Yes. His role is to be a watchdog. The new President of the Commission has taken on board people's wish not to see excessive Commission activity in the nooks and crannies of daily life. The idea is that Mr. Timmermans will be big on the big things and small on the small things. His job is to vet whatever is going into the Commission work programme. A situation with regard to the plastic bag issue, which is not a particular problem for this country because we have legislated on it, arose two weeks ago. Mr. Timmermans was not inclined to pursue some kind of legislation on the issue at European level. The European Parliament and key stakeholders were pressing for the legislation to be pursued. In the end, it made it through the sieve. Compared to the structure that is in place now, there will be much more vigilance about what is going into the Commission agenda and what the Commission will be adopting. Each Commissioner will have to defend what he or she proposes to do on the Commission's work programme and why it is necessary.