Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There are few Murphys on this committee. It is great to have this conversation with Ms O'Reilly this morning and it is fair to say that since she became Ombudsman in 2003 and European Ombudsman in 2013, she has really been to the fore in finding the truth in terms of ethical standards and trust. She spoke about trust today and there is much conversation about how transparent Europe was in dealing with the pandemic.

Politicians are not held in very high esteem by the Irish people. I heard a conversation on the radio this morning indicating that a very low number of people trust politicians. Ms O'Reilly made some very open and frank comments about how we do our business in Europe. How does she find the institutions react when she might be telling them to get their act together, for example, or be more ethical in what they say to people? In dealing with European Medicines Agency or the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, does she find that people acknowledge her role, respect it and try to correct what she sees as inadequacies when giving a truthful position to European citizens? I have other questions but members have asked them already so I will not repeat them. I thank Ms O'Reilly for being with us this morning.