Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)

Will the Taoiseach make it possible for each Minister to report to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on European Scrutiny on each EU proposal that comes through their Departments? Very often, by the time many of these proposals are brought to the attention of the European scrutiny committee, and ultimately to individual committees, many of them are well down the line with much negotiation having already taken place at official level. We depend on the vigilance of individual Ministers with regard to what goes on in each Department.

If there could be proper scrutiny of proposed directives coming from Europe, it would give us the opportunity to bring in various organisations, such as the Small Firms Association, to hear their views on how this would impact Irish businesses and small businesses in particular. There is a gap between action being taken and being too far advanced by the time a committee of these Houses gets to examine it. When that happens it becomes a waste of time.

I ask the Taoiseach if he could arrange for his Department to consider the matter. Into the future and, I hope, with the passing of the Lisbon treaty, when national parliaments have real import into directives, proper procedures should be put in place to facilitate this. I put it to the Taoiseach that there is currently a big gap in having a real input into proposed European directives.

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