Councillor Paul O'Donoghue:

There was no advance notification whatsoever. I worked on my own, with my expert at the time, on the issue and were it not for the warning mechanism I would not have known the national position even though it was crucial legislation that would have huge ramifications and implications for Ireland. That again illustrates why it is important that we all work together.

Reference was made to an information deficit. There is huge information deficit. Recently I worked on an opinion on the Atlantic strategy and the Taoiseach brought it through the Council when Ireland held the Presidency in May of last year. The Atlantic strategy could provide huge economic benefits for the country. How many local or regional authorities in Ireland have an idea that the strategy was passed, that it will provide funding from the year 2014 on to 2020, that it has priorities and that we should feed into them? An information gap does exist and other countries are well ahead of Ireland in terms of securing funding.

Most counties here have - believe it or not - a European officer but it is hard to know about him or her. There are many local and regional authorities but I think it is a position in name only, rather than one that is properly used. I would like the Oireachtas committee to use its influence to ensure that local and regional authorities have European officers to watch what comes through from Brussels, to watch things like the Atlantic strategy and know what are our priorities.