Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

I am very pleased to have an opportunity to deal with this most important issue. I begin by genuinely and heartily commending the members of the Technical Group for placing the services directive on the agenda of this House. Too often, European directives in particular are not debated here in advance of their completion and the view of this national Parliament is not taken into account before we are presented with the final product. It is difficult for committees in this House to follow all of the European agenda but it is an important job of work and one we must do.

I welcome the previous two contributions from the Government benches that were not only reasoned but reasonable, unlike the two contributions prior to that from the Government benches from Deputies Ardagh and Fiona O'Malley who sought to be political and mischievous in misrepresenting a point of view. That is not helpful because, by and large, it would be possible to build consensus around these issues in this House. There is not a huge divergence of view at the core of what we want although there are philosophical differences. Perhaps the Progressive Democrats agenda is such that it might——

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