Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I join Senator Keogan in wishing the new MEP, Colm Markey, the very best in the European Parliament. I am sure he will do a fantastic job. It is a wonderful opportunity as well as a huge honour for him.

In terms of citizen engagement, we would much prefer to have public meetings. If the vaccine is rolled out, then we will have public meetings. As a young political nerd, I attended meetings on the Nice treaty back in the early 2000s before I was ever really involved in electoral politics. I remember being at a packed meeting at the Westcourt Hotel in Drogheda. It was a good model as there were many people at it. This was for the Nice treaty, one which might not have engaged people as much.

The Lisbon treaty referendum failed. What happened then was this committee, of which I was a member at the time, engaged with the issues and asked what were the problems the public had with it which caused it to vote "No". The Government did its own research as well. Those issues were addressed at the subsequent referendum. Whenever one hears people say we had to revote on that treaty, we did but we addressed the four key issues which the public stated had determined why they had voted "No". We have loads of examples. I mentioned the citizens' assembly as a way of engaging with citizens. That can happen.

I was at the forum on the future of Europe at Dublin Castle. I am not sure that is the best locale for this type of thing. The Westcourt Hotel in Drogheda or the parish hall in Duleek would be much more preferable.