Ms Noelle O'Connell:

Yes. If the Chairman wishes I can provide further details subsequently. We are not at the stage of formally writing the 2015 report but this is what our preliminary indicators are showing.

Bearing in mind the life cycle of the Parliament and the gestation periods of parliamentary reports, we would like to see Irish MEPs aim to publish one, if not two, reports during their parliamentary tenure.

In terms of the Oireachtas committees,according to the Programme for Government 2011-2016, all Ministers should appear before their respective committees or before this committee prior to travelling to Brussels for meetings of the Council where decisions are made. European Movement Ireland is very supportive of the Government’s commitment to bolster its democratic accountability in this regard and its engagement in terms of prioritising Ireland's relationship with Europe and the EU.

Having examined the minutes of all Oireachtas committee meetings in 2014, we found that Ministers had a 51% rate of pre-Council briefing attendance. That level may appear to be quite low but it represents a year on year increase on 2011 when we had rates of just 36%, albeit solely for General Affairs Pre-Council briefings, to 46% in 2013. Attendance at the individual committees ranges from 100% for General Affairs before this committee, 80% for ECOFIN before the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, noting that the only two briefings of ten missed by the Minister, Deputy Noonan, fell either side of budget 2015, to no pre-Council briefings out of a possible four for education, youth, culture and sport, EYCS, before the Joint Committee on Education and Social Protection.

Notwithstanding the demands on Ministers’ time or where, for example, Oireachtas committees have agreed alternative arrangements with Ministers over the frequency of these briefings, EMI advocates for better compliance with the systems that have been put in place to ensure Oireachtas scrutiny of matters before decisions are made in Brussels. We are seeing a steady but slow upward trend in pre-Council briefings by Ministers. We welcome this metric and would like to see it continue and improve in the coming years.

In terms of the attendance rate at this Joint Committee on European Union Affairs, the accountability report does not provide an analysis of attendance by individual members.

Rather, we looked at the attendance of all members at the 29 meetings last year and arrived at a composite average of 61%. The average attendance has varied from a low of 59% in 2010 to a high of 71% in 2011. Over the five-year period, attendance has averaged at 63%.

We recognise that members’ workloads and competing priorities can impact on their ability to attend all committee meetings. This is something that Deputies and Senators regularly highlight to me each time we present the accountability report to this committee and we are very cognisant of it. However, in considering important EU developments and initiatives affecting Ireland, ensuring that EU legislation and proposals are properly scrutinised at a domestic level and in holding the Government to account in our relations with Europe, the Oireachtas Joint Committee on European Affairs plays a key role in informing debate on the European Union in Ireland. So it will not come as a surprise to its members that we are advocating a high attendance rate by its members.

From the findings of the 2014 report and the full reporting period from 2010 to 2014, we can conclude that Ireland is doing quite well in some aspects of its engagement with Europe and has room to improve in others. For example, attendance by taoisigh at the European Council for 34 meetings over five years could not be better, standing, as it does, at 100%. The attendance and engagement of our elected representatives at the other European and domestic fora is steady, particularly when the various contexts impacting performance is acknowledged. This is something Deputies and Senators have highlighted to us over the years. We argue that there is always room for improvement and we continue to hope for an upward trajectory and trend.

Our accountability campaign is a vital part of European Movement Ireland's mission to lessen the democratic deficit and knowledge deficit in Ireland’s engagement with Europe. We have tried to distil and present last year’s findings in a detailed infographic rather than a 100-page report that might not get as much readership and traction among the public that we would like. We have used the infographic in an effort to communicate the information in as clear and accessible a manner as possible.

As members of the committee will appreciate, the process behind the reporting is challenging and labour intensive. For example, in tracking members’ attendance at this committee throughout the 2010-14 reporting period, members of the European Movement Ireland team have physically attended and reported on more than 156 committee meetings. In that same period, we have tracked 3,759 speeches and 2,860 written questions in the European Parliament.

We rely solely on information and data that are available in the public domain, which inevitably throws up a number of difficulties. It does not allow for a fully qualitative analysis of the engagement in question or reflect the inevitable conflicts that arise in the schedules of elected representatives and we are careful to acknowledge this in contextualising our findings.

We are also restricted by the delay with European institutions publishing their data. Consequently, we can only stand over our findings as being accurate to the best of our ability at the time of publication. We are often frustrated by the subsequent release of relevant data after we have gone to print. In scaling up our accountability reporting we had hoped to publish biannual reports in line with each EU Presidency term. However, this will not be possible until the various bodies start publishing their data in a more consistent and timely manner, thereby better enabling us to fulfil this project in terms of the streamlining of information being made available to the public.

We are at an important juncture of EU relations with many sectors interested in the various developments and outcomes. In advance of - I can now say - next year's general election, European Movement Ireland recommends that all political parties give strong consideration to European policy and European issues relevant to Ireland in drafting their election manifestos.

European Movement Ireland is very proud of our accountability project. We will do our best not to be deterred by the challenges I have outlined. We hope the members find the reports provide added value and assist them in their committee work. I thank the Chairman and the members of the committee for giving us the opportunity over the past five years to present and report on our accountability campaign to this committee. I acknowledge the work the committee is doing in trying to promote and develop that connection and engagement between Ireland and Europe. European Movement Ireland is very supportive of the work of the committee in that regard. I look forward to continuing to report on some aspects of our accountability report next year.