Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Good. That is welcome. If I can continue in a European vein, and I spoke on this issue in the Dáil Chamber recently, the Minister leads the Department of Health and he regularly meets his counterparts and colleagues across Europe. Ultimately, while we have own structures in Ireland, there is the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. I presume as a member state of the European Union we contribute financially to that entity. It has a budget of in or around €50 million per year, which is paltry considering its American equivalent has an annual budget of $12 billion. There is not much the Minister can do in that regard but I ask that at the next meeting of the Council of Ministers he would be an objecting voice or at least a voice of concern in the room. This entity, which was set up following an outbreak of the first ever SARS disease 18 years ago, has proven itself to be largely inept and ineffective. It is ultimately the source of information for each member state to have its trickle-down of policies in terms of managing this. Does it interact with the Council of Ministers much? Are they as a bloc concerned this entity has not been that steady backbone they would have needed it to be for the past 14 months?