Neale Richmond (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the MEPs. It is rare for some of them to get back to Dublin or Ireland on a Wednesday, but green weeks are made for things such as this and it is great to have everyone here.

On the level of engagement between the Oireachtas and the European Parliament, this is the second time we have met this year following our trip to Brussels. There have been various other opportunities either within our own political families or otherwise, but we do not meet enough. We need a lot more engagement not only with this committee, but all the sectoral committees shadowing the work the MEPs are doing in their committees. Do the MEPs have any thoughts or solutions as to how we might better achieve that? Previously, this committee would have met on a Thursday to try to facilitate those returning, but that is not feasible either. We also tried the dial-in mechanism once or twice. Could we see how we might work more closely as Deputy Martin Kenny said, on directives or legislation not on a party basis, but on a committee or representational basis? Similarly, this would apply if they are working on reports or opinions which are coming into the European Parliament and which we will then have to scrutinise. How can we work together and occasionally put on the green jersey, to use that horrible phrase?

It will become really apparent with the ECJ ruling, issued two weeks ago, regarding upcoming trade deals. We have had fairly feisty exchanges in this committee over CETA and TTIP. We have disagreed and that is fine, but we all agreed that there was not the necessary level of scrutiny of those trade deals. From those of us of my political background, as a keen supporter, we are constantly fighting a battle but those who oppose those deals are saying that we do not discuss them enough. How can we ensure that those deals are discussed in order to identify potential problems or issues or to sell them? This is a responsibility that national parliaments will have to adopt and it sums up the crossroads that the EU is at now. For so long, support was taken for granted, yet in this country we have seen in our referendums that we do not have a great history in that regard. We see in its ultimate conclusion, Brexit, that people have lost faith in the European institutions, although some of them never had faith in the first place, or it was taken for granted. Aside from the obvious core positives, when people think of Europe, they think only of endless directives or myths about straight bananas and ridiculous things like that. The level of disengagement is extremely worrying.

I spoke about the Oireachtas, the European Parliament and hopefully the Assembly working closer together, where possible. in the future, but also within national parliaments. The Council of Europe, on which Senator Leyden still sits, has delegates from national parliaments and in the history of the European Parliament, there were delegates from the Oireachtas until the dual mandate was abolished in 2007. We very rarely get to meet our counterparts in other EU parliaments. We have had a lot of engagement with people from the House of Commons and the House of Lords in recent months for obvious reasons but, bar the occasional visit from the big counties, by which I mean Germany and France which are sending delegations here - they are very welcome and it is perhaps eye-opening - how can the European Parliament fill that gap through national parliamentarians from the soon-to-be 27 member states engaging either within their political families or none, depending on where they belong? We need to know what EU affairs committees are doing in Spain, Estonia or Croatia to see how we can act. There is co-ordination at European Parliament level and a history there, but we will have to have greater engagement. National parliamentarians are required to engage under the Lisbon treaty and the recent ECTA dealings, but how do we facilitate that? Do the MEPs have any suggestions on how we might bring about that greater co-operation?