Dr. John O'Brennan:

I thank the Chairman for the invitation. I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the ongoing review. I wish to touch on four elements in my contribution, the first of which is the Irish priorities in the European Union and the way we defend and promote our interests; the second, how we communicate Europe in Ireland, why our EU membership is important, and developments in European integration in general; the third, the importance of further enlargement to the western Balkans, Turkey, and potentially further - it was interesting to see Commissioner Štefan Füle talking about offering Ukraine a membership perspective in recent days; and the fourth, the role of the Oireachtas in the relationship between Government and Parliament in the European integration sphere.
In regard to Irish priorities and strategies in Europe, we have exited the bailout but this is still a very critical juncture for Ireland and for Ireland in Europe. I wish to reinforce what Professor Ben Tonra said to the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade last month when he spoke about the foreign policy review. We must be smarter about how we use and deploy our resources in Brussels and elsewhere. In particular, that means re-examining our network of embassies and the kind of activities in which they engage. It seems to me there is something of an imbalance currently, with the understandable emphasis on reconstituting the economy and the move towards incorporating trade as a more important element of activity. We should not lose the significance of the traditional nuts and bolts of diplomacy in the EU, which is so important in the context of the Council of Ministers and the broader institutional environment. It is important that we continue to maintain a presence in every EU capital and continue to maintain the very basic tools of diplomacy which are so valuable in the EU-28 context, having eyes and ears on the ground and sufficient human capacity in order that people can engage in national capitals with parliamentarians, government ministers, civil society, business and so on. All of that is critical as legislation is proposed and is going through the cycle in Brussels. There is simply no substitute for human intelligence. I think we have to beef up our smaller representations rather than rationalising or diverting attention away to Asia where there is an understandable need for further representation. A core focus has got to remain on the Council of Ministers and the EU legislative cycle.
I will make a further point about Irish representation in the institutions. I know Government is concerned about this in that many of the people who entered the Commission in particular are coming towards retirement age and that the number of Irish people entering the EU institutions has fallen dramatically. We have to examine that seriously and also ways of incentivising people coming out of the universities, for example, to consider going into the Commission, the Parliament and elsewhere. There is simply no substitute for having Irish nationals in positions of influence across the institutional matrix. I was reminded of that again in Brussels last week in almost every meeting, where the cup of coffee or the casual drink one has with somebody may not be important in the immediate context but down the line it may be crucial where there is an issue of importance to our country within the Council.
I am aware the Minister of State with responsibility for European affairs is visiting all the universities next month and he is very serious about tackling this problem. I know that faculty members throughout the country also are giving this a good deal of thought. We must increase the representation of our nationals across the board in Brussels.
My second point is about the way we communicate the importance of our membership to Irish citizens. We know from many years of regular polling that Irish people continue to be seriously ignorant and ill-informed about developments within the EU. Successive referendums have revealed the persistent theme of that lack of knowledge as a common variable in the Irish experience of European integration. We simply must do more to bridge that gap, and again the Minister of State with responsibility for European affairs is seriously considering new vehicles that might help us tackle that problem.
I agree very much with Mr. De Rossa's suggestion that some kind of reconstituted public space where people who are actively dealing with Europe, whether they are politicians, academics or otherwise, could initiate and continue conversations around the country. I am involved with Europe Direct, which is an initiative of the Commission but which is done through public libraries. There have been a number of meetings thus far and I have been very impressed with them. They have echoed what the forum did in the past but we could expand that significantly with a little imagination.
A further point relates to the longer term, that is, the place of Europe, our membership of the EU within the school system, and how we construct a proper civic education process in order that people can be aware of the significance of Irish membership of the EU. At the moment, the only place where this happens is within the second level curriculum in the social, personal and health education, SPHE, programme, but that tends to be rather haphazard and ad hocand it has suffered like other programmes as priorities have had to be changed during and through the recession. I think there is a very good case for putting very significant resources into both primary and secondary level and ensuring children coming through the system have some understanding of the place of Europe within the broader civic landscape. I also think there is a need for a much expanded role for this in the university system. I would argue that every single university student should be compelled to take at least one module in European integration in order that they become familiar with the institutional landscape and that when they go out into the world as engineers, doctors or whatever else, as leaders in their fields, they have internalised the contours of Europe and why they are significant for Ireland. If resources could be directed towards them, universities would be quite willing.
My third point relates to EU enlargement. This is my specialist area of research. I have been immersed in it since the mid-1990s and I have grave concerns at the moment about the political will across EU capitals to achieve further enlargement. So far as I can see there is an open and shut case for including the western Balkans within the European Union.

At the moment there are unmistakable signs that many EU capitals have gone cold on the idea, for all kinds of reasons. Ireland has been identified, rightly I think, as a champion of enlargement in the past. Certainly that was the case in respect of 2004 and there is a lot of goodwill towards us.
I urge the Government and parliamentarians to remain positive about enlargement and to remain a strong advocate, particularly to extend enlargement to the western Balkans, including Turkey. I am in favour of Turkish membership once the accession criteria has been satisfied and we should make a case for same. Three quarters of the current membership of 28 were former enlargement states so we all have a stake in this measure. The goodwill that recent entrants have towards the EU is significant but it is one that we, in turn, should play a role in replicating, in the current context, in the western Balkans.
Finally, I shall discuss the role of the Oireachtas. Some members will be aware of my views on the matter. The Oireachtas punches significantly below its weight in terms of European integration that is broadly defined. Parliament must take much more responsibility and step up to the plate across a range of spheres. This is particularly the case in terms of the scrutiny of EU legislation. The scrutiny that takes place in the Oireachtas is almost laughable and the change to a mainstream system has not worked. I am in favour of condensing the work around European legislation to a single committee, the European Affairs committee. The way that one can do so is to provide it with the necessary resources. Therefore, one would need to significantly increase the resources of the EU committee which should be the primary vehicle. We must address the imbalance in power where the executive has almost all of the prerogatives where European integration is concerned. We must swing that back so that parliamentarians can engage in the proper and substantive amount of scrutiny and oversight of executive action in Brussels.
The current situation is not good enough. There must be a stronger role for Members of the Dáil and the Seanad to play in the process. There are all kinds of ideas about how that might happen and we could interrogate some of those in questions. A stronger role for the Seanad, for example, is frequently mentioned and I favour the suggestion if the resource question is addressed and the circumstances are right. The role of the Oireachtas must be beefed up for foreign policy in general and most especially in the European integration context. I shall leave my comments at that and we can return to some of the issues later.
Chairman:I thank Dr. O'Brennan and I call our next speaker, Mr. Tony Connelly.