Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Professor Barrett will recall the work he did with this committee in the aftermath of the Lisbon treaty referendum failure. He might recall the discussion we had with the media at the time. We tried to understand why European matters rarely made it into the national media and were rarely discussed in a way we believed allowed citizens to gain an insight into what was happening. At the time, the evidence to the committee was that unless a matter was being talked about in the national Parliament and in the bars and periphery thereof, it did not make its way into the general ether such that the public could discuss it or gain an insight into it. As we examine the proposals here, in light of the content of the five presidents' report, is there anything the delegates can identify that would assist this committee in playing a more active role regarding the model proposed, that would allow us to discuss EU issues concerning people's lives in a more relevant way and that would help the citizens of all member states to engage more fully with the discussions that occur at the centre of the Union?