Mr. Tony Murphy:

I fully agree with Deputy Richmond that this is a huge issue going forward. In general terms, Irish officials do very well in the institutions, which means they end up in quite high positions. As the Deputy says, the problem now is that many of them are coming to the end of their careers and will be retiring in the foreseeable future. While we do our best in terms of encouraging people to come to the Court of Auditors, the real priority has to be to get people into the Commission, where the policy is actually being shaped and made. We try to promote that in terms of going to colleges and so on.

I fully agree there may be room for more co-ordination. We are only a small fish in the whole picture. Nevertheless, however, sometimes we are making our own efforts and perhaps this could be better co-ordinated. There is always room for improvement in this regard. The EU jobs strategy was a good start, although it is mainly focused on public servants. We must also attract people from the private sector, through the equality and diversity, ED, programme. The increase in the number of bursaries for people going to the College of Europe has been a good development because this is also a good pathway into the EU institutions. Some good work is being done, therefore, but it is like what the Chair said earlier regarding the hours and the number of participants involved. The more participants involved, the more need there is to ensure ongoing coherent co-operation and people are not, for example, just doing the same thing two days later in the same place. There is always room for improvement and we are always open to it. I see this as part of my role. As the Irish member of the Court of Auditors, no less than as its President, I very much see it as part of our ambassadorial role to encourage young Irish people into the institutions, and not just into the court but to support the European project as a whole.