Ms Noelle O'Connell:

I thank Deputy Haughey for his very warm words on this very cold day. We are grateful for his support.

I shall first address the Vice Chairman's question on transparency and accountability at Council level and the issues coming up in the citizens' dialogues. It is very interesting that one of the topics and themes emerging through the debate is the continued desire and interest of citizens to have greater accountability and transparency across all levels and across all the different institutions. Citizens have not focused on or mentioned the Council specifically but there has certainly been the interest, the wish and the desire to see continued efforts in promoting accountability and transparency across the different institutions, regardless of which institution it may be.

We would absolutely agree with Deputy Haughey that Brexit has been a wake-up call. It is interesting to see, across the different citizens' dialogues - so far we have been to Galway and Cork - that a desire is expressed to have better communications by our Government and the EU Parliament around the various European Union initiatives at play in Ireland and how they affect all our lives as citizens. The main topics and themes emerging are on the areas of security, climate change, the Erasmus programme, the rural-urban challenges and how to promote and develop Ireland's infrastructure. PESCO has also featured. The debates are very lively, robust and well informed.

We model the example of the Citizens' Assembly. People are seated at tables and they go through a series of five topics. The participants' pack will be given to this committee for reference. The groups of participants discuss each of the topics in detail for ten minutes and their views are then fed back to the wider group. It is certainly an interesting and lively debate. It is very encouraging to see the level of commitment and engagement by people. The meetings take place after work on cold evenings at 6 p.m. and we do not allow people to leave until they are all talked out at about 8.30 p.m. or 8.45 p.m. The level of commitment, debate and dialogue is really encouraging. People want to have their voices heard on what Ireland's relationship with the European Union should be like. We are delighted to see that people are inputting in to this continuing process. We shall garner all the views and feed it back in to the Parliament and to the Government, in order to shape and influence Ireland's position on the European Union as we face the future.