Ms Noelle O'Connell:

I thank the Deputy. I agree with him. All his comments resonate with us and we will take them on board. Far be it from me to drill down into the merits, nuances and subtleties of polling with distinguished committee members. They all know far more about opinion polling than I ever will. Let us be very honest: it is difficult to set definitive answers to specific questions. We are limited by both resources and the number of questions in the poll; otherwise, we would have had hundreds of questions. They are designed to try to gauge broad sentiment in specific areas. Unfortunately, the Deputy is correct that we cannot drill down into every nuance and specific policy area to the extent we would like, but we see the value and the merit in nonetheless getting a broad brushstroke focus. It is interesting that we have seen a reluctance among people in Ireland to cede control over tax more broadly over many years and in response to different question formats. That trend has remained consistent throughout our polling. What we are trying to do is build a picture of the sentiment in certain areas, recognising, of course, the limitations that come with this and the caveats and health warnings the Deputy constructively outlined.

The question about the process unfolding and whether it will just become a passive listening exercise is a great one. From our perspective, there is a big challenge in this regard. It is a little like apple pie, swimming pools and bowling alleys for everyone. We will have to try to set realistic expectations and manage them because what the people in Ireland might have to say about how they see an evolving and a reforming EU taking place could be very different from what our counterparts in, for example, Slovenia, might say. Slovenia will assume the rotating Presidency of the Council of the EU in a couple of weeks. How do we get this balance right? There will have to be compromise, and the committee has discussed this over previous meetings. The challenge will be to reconcile the vision while managing realistic expectations and taking on board the differing and competing views and perspectives across member states, as we have seen only too well and too frequently with something as complex, multifaceted and challenging as the 27 member states that comprise the EU and its diverse population of more than 450 million citizens. At the end of the process, perhaps we will be able to get an idea of how the Union can be better, work better and serve the interests of its citizens. I refer to polls similar to those we have carried out in Ireland and the Eurobarometer polls and their findings and statistics. They will tell us what the EU is doing and give somewhat of a report card. That will be important. The Deputy is absolutely correct.

When I present on the topic of the citizens' assemblies, as I am frequently invited to do, and I am asked to share the Irish experience, Ireland is held up as a model of best practice, which is a fantastic tribute to how we approach these debates. People always point to the fact that the citizens' assemblies dealt with very sensitive, delicate and contentious issues on which the Government reflected and which the Oireachtas looked at and that many of those issues were then put to a vote in referendums in which people voted and made their voices and opinions heard on those issues. It will be a challenge to get the balance right between vision and expectation management, but I hope we will have the constructive engagement of committee members, the Oireachtas and the Government, and that commitment is there. We always say that this cannot be just a talking shop and that the information, views and feedback cannot be just compiled, put into a report and left sitting on a shelf. A tribute to us all in Ireland is that the views and perspectives of our citizens have been inputted into the Irish position. That is of real comfort and is something we will stress and reinforce as we embark on this constructive conversation, dialogue and listening process.