Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish to move on and elaborate on that point. I am a former Member of the European Parliament. One of the difficulties we have here is that every so often, when a regulation is applied and local communities are annoyed, upset or frustrated by its application, our Government will tell them there is nothing it can do because this is an EU regulation. What it does not acknowledge is having signed off, behind closed doors at a European Council meeting, on that very same regulation some time beforehand.

There is a difficulty, which is acknowledged by the Commission, with regard to laws that are applied that impact on communities. When they are decided upon at a EU level, those communities are not aware of its full implications. That creates a democratic problem but it also includes a problem with regard to the application when it comes down to the practical levels. Does the Commission intend to commission a socioeconomic impact assessment of the potential implications of the proposed regulation, on a member-state-by-member-state basis?