Ms Kate Feeney:

I thank Deputy Richmond for his question. Regarding what the institutions are doing, breaking the bubble is a major challenge. National and local politicians in Ireland have a tendency to take credit when Europe does something well and to blame it when things go wrong. This does not help when we are trying to communicate Europe's message. With the help of the Irish Regions European Office, we ran a series of seminars over the past 12 months on communicating Europe across each of the regional assembly areas. We have also partaken in a number of citizens' dialogues. Indeed, we are taking part in another tomorrow.

Undoubtedly, trying to make the benefits of EU membership tangible for people on the ground is a challenge. For instance, many do not know that the Erasmus+ programme or the free Interrail passes that are handed out to 18-year-olds across the Union are connected to the European project. This is about reinforcing such messages.

The Committee of the Regions is seeking an expanded budget from the Commission. Something we would like to do with that budget is to set up satellite hubs across the Union. They would be similar to the offices that the European Parliament has in various capital cities, but we would like to have ours out in the regions. We could use them as hubs from which to communicate our message.

Communicating the message is a challenge for each of us. Every person in this room must take on that challenge and check our language and messaging when communicating matters concerning Europe.