Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I return to Deputy Dara Murphy's point about the legitimacy of our national Parliament. A very important part of how we do that is that when things go very well for our country we must acknowledge Ireland's role in making that happen and the role of Europe and its bodies in allowing that to happen. When things do not go so well we also need to be honest. The semester process which will start soon for our country in a different way as we plan to exit our bailout programme is a very good way for us to have that discussion. While some of us, such as Deputy Crowe, might have concerns about how it will operate, at least we need to be honest, as we all would be, about how it will operate. We must say there are vast areas that are still exclusively areas of national competence, and also new areas of supervision and surveillance which will not apply to Ireland in their implementation if we all do the work well. However, that supervision provides a safety net for our country to ensure the difficulties we have had in the past will not be repeated. We are all united in wanting to ensure that does not happen.