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

On a European affairs officer, I believe it should be a matter for the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and individual local authorities. Some local authorities already have a European affairs officer and I think such a post would be very useful because there are funding opportunities available through various sources. One of the things we are very keen is that at every level in this State, we would obtain as much European funding as we can. Universities and third-level institutes are very good at getting research funding so it is undoubtedly the case that local authorities should have more expertise and some of them have while others are really pushing the European links. Limerick is one example. There are European-orientated funding programmes such as the PEACEPLUS programme, which is partly funded by the EU but also by ourselves and the UK Government. Border counties can benefit from that. I am certainly more than happy to work to ensure we can spread this out around the country.

We had a very small budget for publicising or promoting the EU. We received a substantial increase for next year in the budget. I will get Senator Keogan the exact figure in due course but it has been substantially increased. This was very important for us in terms of the EU50 programme. I even saw one Deputy criticising advertisements - I do not know who was putting up the advertisements as I do not think it was us - because they were talking about Europe, so we will do that and be criticised for it. I launched an advertising campaign recently at relatively low cost to promote the idea of Irish people working in European institutions because over the next three years, we are going to have a 35% reduction in the number of Irish people working in European institutions.

Therefore, I encourage the committee to join us in encouraging our excellent young graduates to work in the European institutions. That is another facet of our promotion.

On dealing with elected people and President von der Leyen’s comments about the Italian election, quite frankly, the European Commission has tools to deal with all of us if we fall below basic principles of rule of law and democracy. At the Council meeting that I attend, we regularly have discussions on what is called the Commission’s annual rule of law report - in fact, we had one only last month. We take turns answering questions from colleagues about the rule of law in our country. In the past, I have answered questions about some issues, particularly around judicial appointments, for example, and what we are doing with the judicial appointments Bill and reforms to the Defamation Act etc. Colleagues will ask questions about that and I ask questions of other colleagues. We sort of hold one another to account as to what we are all doing. It is not about particular countries, rather, it is about what we are all doing. Though it is, in some cases, about particular countries because there are certainly concerns and procedures in place in relation particularly to the system of judicial appointments in Poland and basic issues of democracy in Hungary as well. There are Article 7 proceedings, as they are known, that have been going on for some time. They would require many member states to support them to move them on and they have not moved on. We generally just take stock of where things are. We try to discuss these issues publicly and directly with our colleagues. I had a meeting with my Hungarian colleague on the margins of the last Council meeting in Brussels, where I expressed concerns, but also said that we want Hungary to get European funding once it complies with the conditions attached to it.

Regarding the Italian elections, that is a matter for the Italian people. They will have a prime minister and I am certainly not going to prejudge what she does. It is ultimately the coalition. It is always important to remember that in Italy, they generally have coalitions and never one party that dominates everything. They are elected by the people and we will deal with them. If there are any issues with regard to rule of law in any member state, the Commission certainly has the tools to deal with them.