Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael)
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I welcome Ms O'Connell and Mr. Richmond. I have had a concern for some time about our scrutiny of EU legislation and directives. I do not believe it is adequate, a point I have put on the record before, and it should not be deferred to the sectoral committees. There needs to be far more accountability. The report points out there were just two comments made by Ireland out of a total of 1,723 on the Green Paper on VAT, a mere 0.1%. That says a lot. What about the other Green Papers? We have a large challenge in this regard. Much of our legislation, almost 75%, is secondary coming from Europe. We need a stand-alone and dedicated committee, representing the people, to scrutinise EU legislation and directives. Some have argued this is a role for the Seanad. Such a committee would also ensure the best deal for the people with inputs at the correct point.

The European Movement Ireland has examined the quantitative analysis of Irish ministerial attendance at Council meetings. Has it any measure of a qualitative analysis? For example, such a directive comes from Europe and is dealt with by the Oireachtas committees. Is there any analysis of what the Irish people have said about it and are their views reflected by Oireachtas Members?