Seán Haughey (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail)
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I thank our guests for joining us to discuss this matter. I was struck by Professor Laffan's view that the timing of this convention is bad. We are where we are and we have to make the most of it. Hopefully, it will succeed. Professor Laffan spoke about the need for participation, engagement and education with reference to the citizens. That is absolutely crucial. Given our experience in Ireland, we have, as others stated, reasons to fear a referendum. It is vital that we engage more with the citizens.

That brings me to my question to Ms O'Connell, with whose work I am familiar. She described her involvement in organising the citizen dialogues on the future of Europe. Were any lessons learned from the dialogues about how we might approach this new aspect of the future of Europe? Civil society really engaged with that process. Could we do anything more to engage with citizens and get them on board with the process? How might the consultation process be improved?

I may be wrong but I got the impression that Dr. Coutts is not too enthusiastic about treaty change or the need for it. Public health is obviously a huge issue for the EU on foot of Covid-19. Can the existing treaties be further utilised to address it? Are any areas of the existing treaties crying out to be utilised more?

Sometimes I wonder how the EU functions at all. It is quite a cumbersome organisation. One wonders how decisions finally get made. Regarding the rule of law, for example, a recent headline announced that Hungary and Poland were blocking the EU's coronavirus package. This arose as a result of a meeting on Monday. Some other speakers have dealt with this. Do we have any reasons to be cheerful about the future of the European Union? Dr. Coutts made a throwaway comment about the rise of populism ceasing. What are the chances of success for this conference on the future of Europe?