Dominic Hannigan (Meath East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Let us look at the speech David Cameron made at the Bloomberg headquarters in January 2013. On that occasion, he identified a number of issues on which he would like to see reform in Europe, as well as many other things. I think there were five in all. These included the implementation of the Single Market, on which he will not find any disagreement here; competitiveness; the issue of the disconnect between citizens and Europe; and the need for national parliaments to use to a greater extent the powers that have become available to them since Lisbon. All of which we agree with here.

When it came to a concrete list of proposals, the UK Government undertook to carry out a balance of competences review, going through each Department and identifying the type of power that could perhaps be returned to the UK national Parliament. My understanding is that it was not a huge list of items that came out of that particular review. From looking at the debate in the UK over the past 12 months, I feel the question is more focused towards freedom of people and workers. I noticed in today's Financial Timesthat one of the most senior trade diplomats has said he does not think the programme of negotiation from Mr. Cameron is extremely ambitious. He thinks there is a very small list of requests from the UK Government. It is suggested that perhaps, as a result, a negotiation process could be undertaken and resolved quite quickly post-election, in advance of a referendum.

Can our guests tell us their views on what needs to be changed in order to meet a minimum requirement for the UK Government to advocate a stay-in vote if there is a referendum? Clearly, if the Conservative Government does win, then what we in this country would like to see is for the Government to advocate a "Yes" vote. What is required from Europe? What changes do the witnesses think would be the minimum required to convince the UK Government to advocate a "Yes" vote? A lot of questions have been asked. Does Senator Hayden wish to contribute?