Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

With regard to the referendum commission, the process has begun with the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government writing to the President of the High Court asking for the nomination of a High Court judge as chairman of the referendum commission. On receipt of this, the commission will be established in line with precedent. There is a provision in the Estimates of the Department of Foreign Affairs for expenditure on a commission for a European referendum this year. It is hoped that the commission will assist in providing objective analysis and interpretation of the meaning of the treaty in a way that will be helpful to the electorate.

With regard to the proportionality of the implementation of directives or regulations, regulations have direct legal effect and directives require to be transposed into national law. The principle of proportionality is important as is the need for the transposition to be consistent with the directive. I cannot speak on any specific directive that it is being implemented, but stress-testing for proportionality many of the directives that are being implemented would be an ongoing work programme for the relevant committees of the House and would be of great service to the Oireachtas and the Executive. It would be a matter for the chairmen of the Oireachtas committees to decide how this would be done and it would certainly assist the democratic process.

To make a general point on voting "Yes", the Lisbon treaty contains an innovative provision on enhancing the role of national parliaments which is new and different from previous treaties of the Union. It gives a new and formal role within the EU to national parliaments as all proposals for EU legislation will be forwarded to them for their consideration. National parliaments will have a period of eight weeks in which to vet proposals and offer opinions on them and if enough national parliaments object to a particular proposal, it can be either amended or withdrawn. Any national parliament can block moves to increase the number of policy issues that can be decided by majority voting. The role proposed for national parliaments in the Lisbon treaty is a real innovation. For those who are concerned about the need for the principle of proportionality to be given practical effect in the implementation of European legislation in national law, a "Yes" vote for the Lisbon treaty improves that prospect because the new role given to national parliaments in the treaty provides them with a real opportunity not only to give their views, but a sufficient number of parliaments can impose their will to amend or withdraw proposals they find objectionable.

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