Mr. Kieran McCarthy:

In reply to Deputy Haughey's question on local government reform, I have been a city councillor on Cork City Council for nine years. The local property tax and income from rates are not sufficient for the council to achieve a surplus at the end of the year. We are running a deficit of €3 million or €4 million every year. Cork City Council secured €500,000 from INTERREG in the past two years. This is enough to all the council to consider refurbishing one of our heritage assets, an Elizabethan fort. EU funding is enough to allow other local authorities to do projects on low carbon technologies, tourism and start-up growth. It is, therefore, very important to us.

Senator Leyden referred to migration and the rise of populism. We often hear about this on the Committee of the Regions. There is a narrative that the European Union is in crisis. My response is that Europe has always been in crisis. Since the 1940s, it has always been responding to different things.

To respond to Deputy Durkan, when we are on the ground and go into local regional authorities across Europe we find they are hunting for opportunities. I do not see a crisis. In Greece and Italy I have heard personal accounts of local councillors picking refugees up from beaches and burying them with their own money and ward funding. It is heartbreaking to hear those stories. All the Irish delegation can do is call for funding for migrant integration.

We have healthy competition between Cork and Kerry, Cork and Dublin, Cork and Galway and Cork and Waterford, but there are some 500 cities in Atlantic Europe that are hunting for opportunities. If we are not aware of the 500 cities in Atlantic Europe, we are not doing our jobs well.

A few years ago, the Houses of the Oireachtas had a fantastic project called the National Forum on Europe. I was the co-ordinator in Cork of a great debating competition run by the late Senator Maurice Hayes. That could be a great way to respond to Senator Leyden's comment about bringing people together.

Bringing the members of the regional assemblies was mentioned. We were brought in. The MEPs also need to be brought together, as do the members of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, the staff of the permanent representation and the members of the assemblies. We are all putting on the green jersey, as one of the members of the Committee of the Regions present constantly says. We are all looking at the same topics and need to sing from the same hymn sheet. It is very important that we work together.