Ms Deirdre Finlay:

I will respond first to Deputy Durkan's comments. I thank the Deputy. I would agree with him when he says that the European institutions are easier to access than we think.

There is a sort of mystery around this European world that we have worked hard to demystify since we began our European programme in 2015.

We do that in various different ways, including through capacity-building of our members to understand European institutions work to outlining to them the funds and the opportunities that exist. We have also worked hard to build a strong relationship with the European Commission representation here in Ireland on Mount Street. They funded a study trip to Brussels last year for our members, where 25 travelled. This did not happen before and it was a great opportunity for us. The representation is hoping to do this again in 2020. When one talks about getting out there and meeting them, it is one thing for me to meet them but the expertise needs to be cascaded down to our membership. While we wish to build expertise within our own organisation, we must always try to cascade learning and build capacity amongst the membership, especially suitable organisations. We also run numerous projects funded by the Directorate General for Communication that raise awareness of the value of the European Parliament. Those projects have offered opportunities for our members, that is, non-profit organisations and civil society groups both large and small to meet Members of the European Parliament and to ask them direct questions on subjects like what they do, how they work and how our members' organisations can benefit from them. We found that to be very successful with great results.

In highlighting the expertise, I noted previously that a small investment in an organisation like ours or an intermediary to build the capacity of Irish non-profit organisations to access European funding is highly worthwhile. We know that high-needs support, hand-holding, strong capacity building, reviewing applications and giving advice can yield good results and in turn can build those European alliances that we are talking about. In addition, the sort of discussion we are having here could be continued in the forum we mentioned previously and we think that could be useful.

On Deputy Haughey's point about citizens and elitism, our kind of work and organisation is citizens-led. Our organisations are working with people. In some cases they are some of the most disadvantaged and marginalised groups. We have seen projects that have been hugely successful. They have brought those voices to Europe and to the fore for policymakers. We wish to see this kind of ever-closer union. The Deputy may be aware that in his keynote address to the European Parliament in 2018, the Taoiseach stated the EU needs to engage citizens more and we use these kinds of pointers in our programming.