Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 23 May 2024
Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments
Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs
Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source
I do not have the date yet. That is partly because June is absolutely crazy as we come towards the end of the Belgian Presidency. There are many different moving parts, including the European Council meeting, the General Affairs Council meeting, and the intergovernmental work, particularly on preparation for Ukrainian accession. I do not know what my diary is like, but I will work with the committee to try to make sure that is as effective as possible.
One of the things that would be very helpful for me is identifying the things members would like to talk about. The Senator mentioned good examples of transposition. There are many. We are focusing on the difficult pieces but if the Senator could give me, at some point, what she regards as a good example as a benchmark, that would be a constructive piece to do.
It is also worth setting out the context. We are focusing here on process improvement, but we are doing so from a position of strength. We are the fourth best in the EU at present as regards our transpositions, if the different numbers overall are considered. That does not account for quality, but it is where we are in the overall numbers. We want to get to the absolutely perfect situation by 1 July 2026. We are setting ourselves that objective. That is what we want. We managed to do it once before but that has only ever happened twice in the EU. This is an exceptionally high target that we should have. If we do not meet it, however, we may still only have one or two to go. I am just setting the context. Full transposition has only ever been achieved twice and Ireland was one. It is a good goal but it is also an exceptional goal.