Professor Gavin Barrett:

There is a range of opportunities there. I would fully agree with Senator Bacik on the need to box clever in relation to this. No matter how strongly it feels, there is no point in the Oireachtas issuing a reasoned opinion in relation to a measure when there is not the slightest hope that it is going to accumulate the necessary number of votes in order for a yellow card to be issued. What the committee wants to be doing is finding out information, and the best way of doing that is via the Monday morning meetings. I believe all of the EU member states' parliaments, including the Oireachtas, have a parliamentary representative based in the European Parliament offices in Brussels. That representative will be able to give the committee a heads-up on what looks likely to get a yellow card, and then the committee needs to get the Oireachtas involved.

I would also advise members to take a look at IPEX, the EU's interparliamentary information exchange website. It is a goldmine of resources from different member state parliaments, most of which are much better resourced than our Parliament. While the Oireachtas does have its own legal adviser, many other parliaments have a range of advisers specialising in particular areas. The committee could ride on the back of that expertise and avail of those arguments and the information that is there.

I already referred to COSAC and the various other committees. The European Parliament, too, is very interested in this type of co-operation with member states. Members should not forget the individual committees within the European Parliament, which would welcome engagement with this committee. Indeed, it is those committees which facilitate the parliamentary representatives by providing them with office space and other resources in Brussels.