Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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I wonder if that makes the process more accountable. The Government represents the consensus within Parliament rather than the views of one party or another. Part of the process involves engagement with the Leader of the Opposition and other spokespersons. We do not have the same engagement in the Joint Committee on European Union Affairs in terms of the Taoiseach and members exchanging views on before and after the Council meetings. Perhaps that is something that could be considered. In other parliaments throughout the European Union one has such engagement and in some cases even direction coming from the committees on European affairs or foreign affairs. I accept the systems are different but the mechanism should involve much more engagement. It is important for us to beef up the engagement that takes place. I do not say we do not have any interaction but it could be broadened.

The election of European Union Commissioners must be transparent. People perceive there to be a democratic deficit and are disillusioned with the system. The manner in which we select the Commissioner could be examined. The European Parliament brings Commissioners in and questions them, but we do not have such a mechanism. One could argue that even if the issue were put to a vote, given the Government’s majority the outcome would be a foregone conclusion. However, there should be a mechanism involving engagement with the Joint Committee on European Union Affairs or the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade. That would promote accountability and transparency and be a much more inclusive process.

Those are some of the impressions I got from reading the report. There is much that we can do. In terms of accountability we always fall back on the position that we are not happy with the scrutiny of matters coming from Europe. That is something we tried to improve in terms of this committee and the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs. However, we would all accept that we can improve on it. I would welcome much more engagement from groups and others who attend such meetings and who have a view on how we could improve our system of accountability in terms of how the system operates.

I can envisage journalists already writing that so-and-so does not attend certain meetings. It does not make much difference. When we were councillors there was criticism about people attending conferences. People turned up for the day and signed in. They were at the meeting, mar dhea. What is important is the quality of input at meetings. In fairness, no one of whom I am aware who is a member of a committee does not make an input. There is engagement from everyone. One could criticise Parliament for lack of engagement but people have their own style in terms of how they engage or operate.

There has been talk with regard to public relations and other elements. That is all part of the package we need to deliver as parliamentarians. In the context of that broader work, it would be helpful if people had a sense of exactly what Irish and other European parliamentarians do.