Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Commissioner for his detailed presentation. The purpose of any sanction is to affect the perpetrators, not the victims. We recently carried out extensive engagement on the future of Europe. The EU was established as a union of equals. What is the Commissioner's view on the response of countries which are implementing sanctions? We heard that eight member states are being good - thankfully, Ireland is one - but 19 others are not. What is being done to ensure these member states step up to their obligations? Of the €1.8 billion that has been seized from an Irish perspective, are we able to quantify that as a percentage of the assets that are going through the Irish economy? While €1.8 billion may seem good, we need to see it in percentage terms to know just how good it is.

The Commissioner is correct when he says we need good-quality, honest and ethical journalism. It is a cornerstone and foundation of an open and free democracy. Social media is distorting that. The Commissioner mentioned the establishment of the DSA, which is going to go some way in dealing with that. Regarding the timelines for the implementation and establishment of the DSA, we are almost bolting the door when the horse is gone. Will the Commissioner update the committee about the timelines?

One area that has not been touched on today is the cost of legal fees. One should never waste a good crisis. We wasted the crisis that followed the collapse of our economy over the 2011-15 period. One of the key recommendations of the troika when they visited our shores was to reform our legal system; we have yet to reform it.

The costs of the legal system in this country are totally out of kilter with the rest of Europe and I would be very interested in, and it does not have to be today, if the Commissioner could make a detailed proposal on what we need to do to bring our cost systems in line. Maybe we still have not realised the full potential of the EU and while in the European Union there is free movement of goods and of people there is not really free movement of services. Services are not engaging across country boundaries and perhaps that is something that might help bring down the high cost of legal fees in Ireland.

Finally, in terms of the Judiciary, thankfully it is well-recognised internationally in Ireland that we have fair and non-political judges but I am struck by what the Commissioner said regarding the need to have a majority of judges on any board that appoints judges. There were major debates during previous Dáil terms when a former Minister for Transport was very entranced in ensuring that there would be a lay majority on judicial appointments boards because he felt it would bring greater openness and transparency to the appointments process. The Commissioner seems to say differently but perhaps I took him up wrong. I have been as concise as I can be.