Liam Twomey (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I believe this will become a key issue. I wrote to the former President of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, following his refusal to attend the banking inquiry, which is taking place in the adjacent committee room. I indicated to Mr. Draghi that his decision would be a lost opportunity for the ECB to present its case to Irish people via the Irish Parliament. There is always the risk that people will not have a sense of ownership of the budgetary process if it is primarily dealt with in the European institutions and they do not see a public pathway for Parliament to deal with the budget.

Mr. McCarthy indicated that the Minister, as part of the Executive, may seek the considered opinions of the joint committee. The committee does not receive much in the way of resources to fully address issues of this nature. Given how important the European semester will become in the years ahead and as this process is new to the joint committee, perhaps a mechanism should be established to involve the committee in the process at the deepest possible level in order that it will be viewed as a participant in the semester procedure. This is the only way the process will gain public acceptance in the long term.

This process might be beneficial and seen as an area of co-operation between us rather than the EU imposing its opinions on us.