Ms Marian Harkin:

I will be brief as we do not have much time.

I agree with what Ms McGuinness said: in a way, today should be about how we communicate and what specific channels we can put in place. As Mr. Kelly said, dealing with legislation at European level is not all that high profile, but ultimately it is our work. For example, one of the items on the agenda is the co-ordination of social security, pertaining to Regulation No. 883/2004, which I am shadowing in the main committee for my group. I would welcome very much an opportunity to meet interested Members of the Oireachtas from the relevant committee to discuss issue. The co-ordination of social security is a very important issue. If we want to discuss it later, I will be happy to do so. For now I am staying with the question of how we communicate.

I was very pleased recently to see a reasoned opinion from both the Dáil and the Seanad on the restructuring directive. They stated it did not comply with the principle of subsidiarity. During the years I have seen many reasoned opinions from other parliaments. I am sure the Oireachtas has issued them in respect of other committees, but the one I saw was one of the first pertaining to mine. It is a sign that this committee is fully and totally engaged at this point of the process, which is before it even comes to the Parliament. It is happening slowly. At one time I was a member of this committee sitting on the other side. I note that there is a huge difference between then and now.

Mr. Kelly talked about citizens. As Members of the European Parliament, one of the things we can and often do is ensure access for citizens to the Commission on various issues. All of us do this regularly on matters that affect citizens and also Members of the Oireachtas. On my way in to the meeting I met Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice and we discussed a certain issue. Mr. Luke "Ming" Flanagan is also involved. It is about the abstraction of water from Lough Talt in County Sligo. Irish Water is linking with the Commission, as are we, to determine whether we can find a solution to a local problem. It happens at different levels.