Joe O'Reilly (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I welcome both ambassadors and would like to re-echo the fact that we in Ireland feel a great bond of friendship with the smaller eastern European countries, particularly with Estonia and Latvia. I was fascinated by the Chairman’s question on migration from Latvia to here and the ambassador’s response to that. My colleague on my side here pointed out there has been a significant number of marriages between the Latvian population here and Irish people. This suggests the ambassador’s hope that they may go home again might be thwarted.

This week the Minister of State with responsibility for European affairs, Deputy Pascal Donohoe, in a separate address said shared sovereignty is enhanced sovereignty. If we pool our sovereignties, then we enhance them to work for each other’s mutual benefit. If one cannot share one’s sovereignty, it only leads to insecurity and xenophobia. It is important the smaller member states work together. We have a community of interests in the EU among the smaller member states which should be maintained when it comes to budget and other negotiations, as we need to rely on each other.

Never again should it happen that the ordinary taxpayer, the regular normal folk on the streets, pay the brunt of future banking crises as they did the last time. If we have another bubble in our economy with a subsequent collapse of the banking system, it cannot be tolerated that regular folk who work in factories or the myriad of shops should have to bear the brunt of it, and for generations, with diminished services and incomes as a result. Responsibilities must be taken on board by bondholders, bank shareholders and depositors in some instances. The last place we should turn to in future is the first place we turned the last time, to the ordinary people. That was wrong and is something smaller member states could work on as a community.

I compliment our professional backup people here for the comprehensive and interesting briefing material on Latvia. I note Latvia has a list system for its elections. During a casual lunch with colleagues the other day, some were bemoaning the proportional representation system and multi-seat constituencies as creating too much internal competition and useless activity among Members. While I personally do not agree with this, how does the list system work for Latvia and would the ambassador commend it for Ireland? My instincts are against it because it smacks of elitism and has risks of centralisation and favouritism which could all lead to a democratic deficit. Do the people of Latvia experience that and resent it?

I have been to Estonia but not Latvia. Maybe I would accept an invitation there.