Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 18 November 2020

Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Union Affairs

Conference on the Future of Europe: Discussion (Resumed)

Photo of Marian HarkinMarian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I apologise; I missed the beginning. I will make one or two comments to follow on from what Senator Chambers said. I spent 15 years in the European Parliament meeting, canvassing and talking to people as well as taking part in various events and functions, etc. Senator Chambers put her finger on it when she said that people are genuinely interested in what interests them. For farmers it will be the CAP. For carers it will be work-life balance. People who are interested in the environment will look to the Green New Deal and the biodiversity strategy. Young people might be more interested in Erasmus.

Then there are cross-cutting issues. People are interested in consumer policy and rights. Some people are interested in data protection. We have the cross-cutting issue of climate change. Healthcare and taxation were mentioned. Someone mentioned a specific topic: the economy and how it works for each of us. People will be interested in specific rights that workers have and, for example, how they relate to redundancy or the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund. All these issues mean something to people on a practical level. My experience in trying to get people interested involved finding a hook. When we find a hook, people will be interested in listening, talking and engaging.

I have a general question. I know we are not discussing the row at the moment around the budget and the fact that two member states are not accepting the conditionality that is being attached to it. I know it is out of scope, but I am interested in the views of the panellists on that and where we go from here.