Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I am at pains to avoid blaming European institutions if things are not being done well by national governments. We must undertake such work ourselves with the help of the European institutions. Ideas such as the connected continent will assist us in that regard.

As regards the role of national parliaments in the Semester process, as a former member of this committee for six years I know there should be a delineation between recommendations by the Executive and by Parliament. I would be glad to hear the Deputy's views on where committees should sit in this process. I know he is engaging in this matter already. Arising from discussions with colleagues about the Semester process, I have learned that if engagement does not happen early between national governments and the European institutions - particularly the Commission - and if the quality of bilateral discussion is not there, we will not get what is required from that process. I support that process because of the difficulty that Ireland is in. If it was just our own difficulty, I think we would have had the measure of it. However, we dealt with our difficulties at the same time as everybody else and the spillover effects cascaded in on top of us.

I believe that while the semester process is new and different and will ask questions of parliaments and governments all over the EU, it is the best way of dealing with that. The basic point is that if we stay inside the framework of the commitments we have made as a Government and respect the role of bodies like the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, which is a domestic institution, all of our participation within the semester process should be positive and supportive.

In respect of the subsidiarity work the Netherlands is doing, the Deputy is correct in saying that everybody starts from the same place. Not everybody ends up in the same place. This is an area where I would be very interested to hear the thinking of our colleagues in the Dutch Government. They have undertaken an interesting process. They have very clearly positioned this as a work that is taking place within the treaties and they want to look at the application of them. I believe we should be open and engaged and look at the work they are doing. When they have given us an update - I gather the committee has already informally begun to understand some of this work - I will formally have an opportunity to get an update on it next Tuesday. When we hear about that work and what they are thinking - they have also organised a seminar on this area - we should reflect on it carefully because we should always be open to thinking about the relationship between member states and the institutions of the EU. We should be open to ensuring that the relationship that is there is in line with the treaties and the commitments we have given to our people in many referenda over the past number of years.