Ms Olive Towey:

Another potential role is to be used as a yardstick. The committee has a remit to scrutinise legislation. The agreements to be reached in 2015 will have far-reaching consequences for the policy options open to the Government and the Oireachtas. They need to be discussed and assessed before they are set in stone.

A further role for the committee is to act as a facilitator. The European Year for Development initiative is expected to generate much public attention and will provide an opportunity for members to use the increased awareness of international co-operation to highlight some of its work. Any event or hearing organised by the committee during 2015 could be considered as part of its contribution to the European Year for Development. The annual Europe Day celebrations could form part of this contribution. This could provide for a degree of cohesion and also a sense of urgency about the work of Ireland's development NGOs and the committee.

The committee could also be an inspiration. It has been a strong and understanding supporter of active citizenship, which is at the heart of our plans for the European Year for Development. It could, therefore, use the year as a reason to engage with inspirational people and organisations that have broken new ground when it comes to taking real action which will have an impact on European integration and international solidarity.

During the year members of Dóchas will organise a large range of initiatives and events, on which we will communicate information to the committee via our website and social media. We hope that by the end of the year it will have inspired thousands of people to believe they have more power and influence to bring to bear on the decisions being made on big global issues. We hope to encourage people to recognise their potential as agents of change and to address the sense of powerlessness they sometimes feel when it comes to decisions made at European level.

We believe 2015 will be a very important year and are convinced the people of Ireland should be given a chance to engage in some of these discussions and make their views and opinions heard. For this reason, the European Year for Development initiative is very important for us and we hope it will be inspiring. We look forward to working with the committee. We particularly look forward to hearing the views of members on what the role of the committee should be. We will be delighted to work with them to tease out some concrete initiatives in which we could engage with the committee during the 12 months ahead.