John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the witnesses for their presentations. I served on the Committee of the Regions for a few years.

The committee is probably the best kept secret in politics. I say that seriously. We have an issue there. I was a member of the committee 15 years ago and it is still the best kept secret. That might be a positive thing in one regard but I do not believe it is positive.

I will make a couple of comments that I made 15 years ago. Our problem in Ireland is we are consistently pro-European. I agree wholeheartedly with what was said about having a dedicated officer at local authority level. I articulated that 15 years ago in my local authority, South Dublin County Council, which is probably the second or third largest local authority in the country. There were specific reasons I would like to have seen that. Nobody in Ireland knows that the Committee of the Regions exists, outside of those who are represented on it. Most Members of the Dáil do not even know what the Committee of the Regions is. That is an issue that needs to be addressed. Aside from the official side, the advantages of having an official would include being aware of what funding is available and accessible and what schemes are available. That would be extremely valuable because those local authorities that are aware of it then box above their weight in drawing down such funding.

In the 2000s and 2010s, particularly the 2000s, there were several referendums. The only time Irish people became heavily engaged with the European Union was when there were referendums. That was an opportunity and a vehicle to have a continuous flow of information at local authority level. As a councillor at the time, if we had been getting regular updates and briefings on key things happening in the European Parliament and key decisions made by the Council of Ministers and the Commission in the previous month or in quarter, I would have been inclined to put something about it in a newsletter to my constituents. Maybe individual members of the Committee of the Regions have done this but, if not, I do not know why they have not sought from the chief executives at local authority level the right to make a presentation to their local authority every month or once a quarter.

We only talk about Europe. In the old days, it was about getting funding for schemes. There is a lack of connectedness on the cultural side. With Brexit, our nearest neighbour has left the EU and our nearest EU neighbour is now France. The war in Ukraine has highlighted for me that there is a remoteness sometimes about Ireland's relationship with the European Union. Traditionally, the connectedness has come over schemes, money and finance but not cultural matters. The Committee of the Regions provides a vehicle at administrative and political level to inform local authority members on a regular basis. If I, as a member of a local authority, got a briefing once a quarter or on a regular basis, I would be more inclined to talk about that when I met members of my community and to address European Union issues in newsletters that I circulate or on my social media and things like that. A huge opportunity is being missed. If, at Government level, we could do something about this, such as mandating every local authority or giving them a statutory responsibility to have a European officer who reports to that local authority every month, I would do it in the morning. Committee of the Regions members should also have the responsibility to present to their local authority on the same basis.

We are running into trouble. This comes up in issues such as the response of the European Union to Gaza. Some people feel the European Union is completely disconnected, and they are right because the European Union at the end of the day is about values. It seems we do not hold some values in common, however. This is a real threat to the European Union and to how it is viewed. The more local you can bring the message and get the message from, the more it feeds back.

I welcome the opportunity to engage with representatives of the Committee of the Regions today.