Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

How does the number of our officials in Europe compare with that of other countries such as Denmark? This committee will need to benchmark its recommendations to upscale against other countries. In more than 90% of decisions made in Europe, we and Britain would have voted the same way because our interests were often combined. We obviously will need to stop riding on Britain's coat tails. Denmark carries out pre-legislative scrutiny of EU directives but we do post mortems after they have been implemented. It is a failing here of the way we implement directives and as a result, people blame Europe for all sorts of problems. There is much that Europe does incorrectly but it does more right than wrong.

On the point of Europe listening, as soon as Brexit happened, people were not soul searching; they were calling for expansion and seeking more integration. Nothing says more clearly that the people of Europe do not want more integration than the failed constitutional referendum. It was not listening when we voted against it but when France and the Netherlands voted against it, there was a change and it was decided to do it by governmental conference. Does that not tell one that the institutions in Brussels do not listen? When the people were asked their opinion and voted against it, Europe went ahead and created its own version of a European constitution.

I sat in a meeting with the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Ms Mogherini, where the talk was of replacing the United States, US. The European foreign service and its leading diplomat want us to replace the US on our borders with EU intervention. That does not sound as if they are listening to anybody because nobody in Europe wants to replace the US in respect of intervention in the Middle East and other jurisdictions. While it talks about subsidiarity and giving more powers, Europe takes them away with the other hand. That is why Brexit happened. When the British Prime Minister went to Brussels and got limited concessions, they were not enough for him to sell at home. Europe was not listening to him and as soon as the Brexit referendum happened, it did not listen but is doubling down on integration.