Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the MEPs. I sense frustration in many of their presentations about the role of the European Council, particularly concerning the rule of law. There seems to be a far greater push to get things done at Parliament and Commission level. Ms Clune mentioned that the Commission's report had no teeth, which effectively means that it is a load of words with nothing to back them up. Are the MEPs pushing a boulder up a hill or does the Council actually want to act on the rule of law?

Regarding migration, the Irish system must look at itself in the mirror. We are handling migration badly.

On the Conference on the Future of Europe, there is still no start date for the process and no chair has been appointed. I do not get a sense of urgency. It seems we are about to have a repeat of one of the seismic events of 2016. The other was Brexit. We have had to move to a post-Brexit scenario under the deal, but we are not examining why Brexit happened. Why was there a disconnect from the European institutions? They had contributed so much, yet ordinary people across the UK felt the EU was interfering in and damaging their lives and that their lives and world experience would be much better outside the EU. No one seems to have examined why that happened, yet we are discussing this grandiose process about the future of Europe. Ms Daly has touched on how people will not care regardless of how many town hall meetings there are. When will there be an urgency in reconnecting Europe with its people? The conference process sounds like something that will drag on forever, but these questions need answers urgently.