Ms Noelle O'Connell:

They are aware of it. There are different sizes. Some of them are staffed by volunteers. Others are like ourselves; they are like an executive. However, it varies. We are very proud of the accountability report and we are continuing to develop it as I mentioned as we benchmark it next year for five years' work and research.

I thank Deputy Byrne for his questions. He mentioned our membership in terms of our organisation and this is an excellent question. The organisation was founded in 1954. We have members who are students. I wish to pay special tribute to the Europa Society from UCC. I was a very active member, back in the day, as a UCC student. I wish to congratulate the society on its excellent conference in UCC last week. We were delighted to be involved in it. We are not secretive about our membership. It ranges from individuals, students, NGOs, public representatives, SMEs, and corporates to multinationals - people who believe we need a robust debate about Ireland's place in Europe and that we as an organisation serve an important role in that. I am pleased to confirm that we have, thankfully, more than ten members. If one looks at our website, we list and go through this in our accounts and our annual report goes into this in greater detail.

The transatlantic trade and investment partnership, TTIP, and the trade agreements Deputy Byrne mentioned are a key focus and aspect of our work programme for this year. We have organised two conferences on TTIP. The trade agreements that the EU is engaged in are hugely important. We see our role very much as facilitating debate and engagement at these events. For example, Deputy Breen spoke at one of the events. The former US Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade also spoke at one of those events. Catherine Day, Secretary General of the European Commission, spoke as well. It is correct that we need to have more debate and dialogue and we are very strongly of the view that needs to take place.

We are working very hard to promote and encourage it.

Deputy Byrne referred to the ministerial attendance rate and it was picked up by some of the other speakers and by Deputy McHugh. We mention in the report that the particular environmental Council meeting clashed with the day of the budget but that Council meeting was attended by senior officials from the permanent representation.

Senator Hayden touched on the point about attendance at Oireachtas committee meetings. We do not individualise the attendance at Oireachtas committee meetings; it is not our role but we study it. As I mentioned in the reply to questions and as Deputy Durkan outlined, we are very aware of the challenges and the workload and time constraints on Members. For example, Deputy Kyne has indicated that he must leave to attend another meeting. We are cognisant of the challenges on Members' time.

On the fiscal treaty, as the Chairman is aware we were very pleased to have an opportunity to present a submission on behalf of our organisation to the fiscal stability treaty. We presented our report to the members of this committee. I agree with Deputy Byrne that it is a challenge. For our sins, we tried to summarise in two pages, in as concise and jargon-free language as possible, to explain the debt to GDP deficit ratios and golden break rules. It is not an easy task. As an organisation committed to communicating Europe and the EU in plain English, it is a challenge and one which we recognise.

Deputy Kyne asked a very good question about a topic we mention in all our four reports, the consistent methodology in terms of the European Commission and the geographical origins. We submit this report to the European Commission annually. We were pleased this year to put our money where our mouth is, so to speak, by submitting a Commission consultation. We replied by the end of September on the European Commission's Commission consultation on the whole process. We were able to give the recommendation to include the geographical origin and to have a consistent e-mail address for all the Commission consultations because what happens on occasion is that the e-mail address is disbanded after a certain number of weeks. This recommendation will help to increase usage, engagement and accessibility on the part of citizens, trade unions, business groups, etc.

On the question about the list system and how we compare with other EU countries, what I like about having the opportunity to make a presentation to this committee is that as we continue to mention every year, this is an organic evolving project and programme. It is only by engaging with people such as members of this committee and hearing their input and feedback that we are able to develop, expand and incorporate those recommendations and broaden out the report. Every year we look at the four key pillars which we have outlined today. We also take on board recommendations and feedback as to whether we should be looking at more. To be completely frank and honest, 2013 was an incredibly busy year for all of us and we decided to make our report more concise and more focused for that year.

Senator Burke's questions and comments on the European Parliament are really welcome, as he has been an MEP. We continue to engage with the MEPs. They have outlined to us that on occasions it can take up to six weeks for an MEP to get an answer to a parliamentary question. I am sure Senator Burke will bear this out. They have told us that in most cases it is easier to pick up the phone to the relevant official. We recognise the limits of looking at the hard data in this regard. In reply to Senator Hayden, in terms of the increase in the number of reports by the Irish MEPs and rapporteurs and by the European directors, we would really welcome the opportunity to contribute to any discussions or debates by this committee on European issues.

To answer Senator Hayden's point about signing in. We are a small, lean organisation. We do not have any staff in Brussels and we have not mastered the art of bi-location and being physically present at any of the committees in Brussels. We can only report on what is on the record and publicly available.

The reports depend on the level of engagement with the political groups and the various reports. We track and analyse what is publicly available. We do seek to engage but we do recognise the qualitative soft data analysis. In terms of the disenchantment and disengagement that all the speakers touched upon, that is a challenge. Last year we commissioned Red C to carry out an independent poll analysing Irish sentiment towards the EU at the start of 2013. Over 80% of the findings were very positive but notwithstanding that there are challenges. We can never take it for granted and we need to work on ensuring that level of engagement and dialogue. Euroscepticism is growing but for us the decline in voter turnout at the local and European Parliament elections is worrying. As an organisation trying to promote engagement, debate and dialogue we did not welcome that statistic. It is incumbent on all of us as a civil society organisation and the elected representatives to increase that engagement.

We welcome the engagement with Ministers at this committee. It is an important opportunity. We do not individualise Oireachtas committee members' or MEPs’ attendance. It is not for us to decide the qualitative input. We recognise the limits to the report but we still believe the exercise is valid and important in shining a light on the work of the committee, the MEPs, the Government and Ministers.

In response to Deputy Durkan, we could consider how this committee compares with other national committees. Malta is the only other EU member state with the proportional representation single transferable vote system. The Eurobarometer reports give a good comparison of sentiment across the different EU member states.

The increasing number of speeches is tied to the increasing number of reports published by our Irish MEPs and the rapporteurs and the popular engagement around the country. I am sure the Chairman knows from his work in support of the Blue Star programme the European Movement Ireland is pleased to be the national implementation body for that organisation. Over 160 schools are taking part this year. Over 16,000 pupils throughout the country have participated and continue to participate in this programme. It is a really important part of that engagement debate. Last year, as European Year of the Citizens and during the Irish Presidency, European Movement Ireland ran a series of regional town hall debates around the country. We were in Galway, Cork, Limerick, Naas and Wexford. That is a very important aspect of what we do and we are committed to doing it for the future. I apologise for that whistlestop tour.