Mr. Luke 'Ming' Flanagan:

I thank the committee for inviting us. The pleasure is all mine. The more often we do this, the better. Senator Richmond asked a good question about what we can do to improve this co-ordination, and he answered it by saying green week is the perfect week to do it. We need to find the time and we should meet between four and eight times a year. Currently, I am covering files on land use, land-use change and forestry, which will impact on the number of forests grown in Leitrim in order that people can intensify in Tipperary. We need to have a debate. I am shadowing a file on fertilisers that could lead to a change to the nitrates directive, which could solve our problems with spreading slurry based on the calendar rather than when it is or is not raining. All that is going on. I am also drafting a document on whistleblowing in the environmental sector for the environment committee. That needs to be brought to this committee in order that we can have an exchange of views and in order that MEPs can show what they are doing. It would ensure MEPs are trying hard and are doing what the people of Ireland want us to do, rather than simply taking decisions in the dark. There is a danger of that unless we engage more with the committee. We have the time to do it because of these green weeks and we have to find the time to do it.

As many speakers have said, we have engaged more with the EU and spoken more about it since the Brexit referendum. Connected to the relationship with the European Parliament and national parliaments is the fact that our national broadcaster, to which we are forced to pay a licence fee, which would be fine if it carried out its mandate, does not show what happens in the European Parliament except for a time at which people arrive home from the pub when they are drunk or just before they go to bed. The European Union and what happens in its institutions is vitally important to us. It is a sick joke that RTE will not broadcast coverage of them at a time everyone can watch it. If 12 midnight is prime time for current affairs, why are "Prime Time" and other current affairs programme not on then? They are not because nobody would watch them. If a politician's goal is to make people fond of the European Union and its institutions, hiding what we do has proven to be a major success. There was 88% support for the EU in the most recent poll. Why would RTE want to show what MEPs are doing and talk about the EU? If we talked about the EU, people might be a little more sceptical and questioning of it. I suggest that in the immediate aftermath of the Famine, people in Ireland knew more about what was happening in the House of Commons than they do about what is happening in the European Parliament now. I have visited schools over the past number of years where I have spoken to educated people. They do not have a clue about what we do or what the parliament is about. They do a brilliant job teaching children but very few of them know anything about this topic.Two years ago, I was asked by a businessman whether I was still the Mayor of Roscommon. Perhaps that is my fault. However, we need to get people to engage. We need to stop hiding the EU and the European Parliament and put them on national television. We also need to come in and out of this committee room. I need to hear the opinions of members on proposals such LULUCF. Most people do not know what is that.

Last year, we celebrated 100 years since the seed was planted that grew into this State and what that meant. The European Parliament is currently planting a seed. We are deciding and what seed we will plant and what fertiliser to put on it as we discuss the White Paper on the Future of Europe. Have members heard about it? If not, they should google it and there will be a few hits from around the world.The Longford Leader and the Roscommon Peopleare in the top ten. This is about our future and where Europe will be in 2025. No one is talking about that and it is as though that does not matter but the committee needs to discuss its consequences. We are not going to carry on as we are because that is not working. The second outcome is nothing but the Single Market. Many countries might like that but others will not. The third is those who want to do more should do more, the fourth is do less more efficiently and the fifth is to do much more together. This debate has been going on since 1 March. There is meant to be a series of debates on the future of Europe. Where is it? Nobody is able to tell me. It is important that we talk about this because doing much more together, according to the document, means full engagement with NATO. I would prefer to go with the third option. We need a debate in the Oireachtas and on our airwaves about what are the other political parties' preferred options because we do not know. I have done a tour of all the local radio stations - there is no chance the national stations would want to talk about it - and each of them said they would ask their local politicians their opinion on the White Paper. I have heard nothing since. I would love to know those opinions and that is why it is important to engage. It was important to engage last year to celebrate the Centenary but it is even more important to engage now to make sure we do not sleepwalk into a united states of Europe if that is not something we wish to do. Some people were called conspiracy theorists when they came out with this in the past but it is down in black and white in the White Paper and we need to talk about it.

From the point of view of our budgets, it will mean we will be in the same position I was as a member of Roscommon County Council. Ireland will get a block grant, centrally decided and we will have to take it or leave it. Perhaps the majority of people will think that is a wonderful idea but we do not know because we have not consulted them. I have asked a series of people where this dialogue will take place. I asked Commissioner Hogan at the launch of the White Paper and he suggested that the MEPs, including me, do it. I asked the Minister of State with responsibility for European affairs and he reckoned that it would be a divisive process. That was not really very hopeful.

Last week I asked Jean-Claude Juncker where the process was but he could not tell me. Two days' later, in the plenary in the European Parliament, I asked Donald Tusk. We are a country with 88% support for the EU and one would imagine we would be only delighted to do this. What did Donald Tusk say? He did not answer the question. All of this is going on now and we definitely need to know about it. The best way to know about it is for us to come in here more often and engage with the committee.

Maybe someone can tell me where this process will take place because it will go back to the European Parliament by September. It will have discussed it with us at that stage. In its own words, it will have "harvested" our opinions, which it sounds like something from that sci-fi, "V" but, by September, it will not be doing that anymore. Tick, tock, we have three months left. It is time we engaged.

I am a sceptic, I ask questions and I am proud to say that. I want to work with our European neighbours but I would like people to engage in what that means. What does it mean when 88% say they are in favour of the EU? Does it mean they want their children to end up in a European army? Does it mean they do not want budgets? What does it mean? We need to know that because it is kind of important.