Mr. John McCarthy:

Absolutely. The two concrete pieces of work that are done by the Irish system in the European semester are the publication of national reform plans, which are overseen by our colleagues in the Department of the Taoiseach, and the publication by the Department of Finance of the stability programme update in mid or late April. Last year was the first year that Ireland was formally involved in the process. The Minister appeared before the committee to present in draft form the main results of the stability programme update. At that time, he indicated he was open to taking on board comments from committee members. Subject to the Minister's approval, we would certainly be willing to do that again. The Chairman is correct - this point is stressed by the Commission in the survey - that there is greater scope for national parliaments to engage in this process.