Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In fairness, there has been a considerable amount of agreement across the room. I agree with all that has been said and the need for a continuation and possibly an upscaling of citizen engagement. This is a single transferable speech in the sense that there are those at the periphery who are removed from politics on every level. I would have thought that was another failing. It was probably members of the European middle class who met at the Conference on the Future of Europe. There probably needs to be an element of work done at a domestic and European level to engage with the cohort on the periphery. I accept we will never engage with those who are outside the periphery, but there is a piece of work to be done.

I found it strange that certain issues did not come up that would pertain to communities I deal with daily. I refer to the wider issue of where the antisocial meets drug gang criminality, but there was no mention of it. I cannot believe that is not an issue right across the entirety of modern Europe. I think certain voices were missed. I am sure the witnesses, no more than me, do not necessarily have a whole suite of solutions to provide to the committee, but it is something we must put on the agenda.