Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)

Is the Minister of State aware that only the Chairman of the Joint Committee on European Affairs has access to information by way of consultation and no ordinary member of that committee or the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs, including its Chairman, has access to such information? Is he aware that a discussion is taking place all over Europe among those interested in the word the Minister of State will not use, namely, "accountability", on the issue of making foreign affairs decisions that may arise in the context of the Common Foreign and Security Policy accountable to national parliaments? That is the issue.

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