Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

I, too, welcome the Bill, which is timely given that a new set of Members of the European Parliament was recently elected and a new Commission will soon be appointed. I congratulate all the MEPs who were duly elected, in particular, the three members of the Labour Party. An increase of a couple of hundred percent is welcome in any election. In addition, after many years, Proinsias De Rossa will no longer be on his own.

I also extend my sympathies to the losing candidates. It is no mean challenge to contest a European election. It is difficult enough to contest a local election, not to speak of a Dáil election, but in European elections each constituency has hundreds of thousands of people and, with the exception of Dublin, is spread over a number of counties. In such circumstances, it is extremely difficult to get one's message across and extremely challenging for anyone who puts forward his or her name. It is commendable and enhances our democracy that many individuals chose to do so.

I welcome the process and outcome of the European election. It is difficult to believe that the first election to the European Parliament was held just 30 years ago in 1979. At that time, the Parliament was a mere consultative body rather than a real parliament but it has rapidly developed into a fully fledged parliament. The changes in the Lisbon treaty will give it virtually 100% participation in all decisions made in the European Union, while the extension of qualified majority voting gives it a partnership role with the Council of Ministers. This is the way forward. The three great institutions, the Commission, Parliament and Council of Ministers, are to be joined by the Heads of State, which will become an institution in the European architecture in their own right, if the Lisbon treaty is ratified.

The Bill before us further enhances the independence of the European Parliament, moving it a step away from national parliaments to which salaries and payments are now tied. While the payment will continue to be tied to national parliaments, the paymaster will be the European Parliament. In addition, the system whereby salaries had parity with salaries in the national parliament was out of kilter because one had 27 different salaries for Members of the European Parliament. Under the provisions of the Bill, we will have parity of treatment and all MEPs will be paid the same salary. This is the correct approach, one which establishes the independence of the European Parliament, and the sooner it is implemented, the better.

This is an opportune time to restructure the payment, eliminate the current anomaly and create parity. It is a bonus that the €1.8 million Ireland pays on salaries and pensions will now be paid by the European Parliament. The other side of the coin is parity of treatment for each member state. This will increase the cohesion among Members of the European Parliament. Previously, there was a large disparity between Members from the former Eastern Bloc states and, for example, Ireland.

The extra powers conferred by the Lisbon treaty will significantly strengthen the European Parliament as a legislative assembly and payments for MEPs will now be more transparent. After 50 years of existence, the complex architecture behind the European Union, including the Council of Ministers, the Commission and the Parliament, are finally beginning to settle into a recognised and semi-permanent state. It is unlikely there will be much more institutional tinkering because the Lisbon treaty is dedicated to creating structures which can accommodate further enlargement. Only time will tell if the reversion to one Commissioner per member state is a good idea.

Now that we are moving down the road towards moulding the structures of the European Union, it is time we paid more attention to the role of national parliaments. Since we joined the EEC in 1973, the Oireachtas has scarcely progressed its structures to take account of membership. Given that approximately 75% of legislation comes from the European Union, the Oireachtas plays an important part in transposing European directives. Where we do not confer competence, however, Europe has no entitlement to interfere in our affairs. We have not moved with the times in this regard. Nearly 30 years after the establishment of the Joint Committee on European Affairs we finally established the Sub-Committee on European Scrutiny. The Labour Party proposed the establishment of the sub-committee in the aftermath of the rejection of the Nice Treaty in 2001 so that the Oireachtas could be made aware of what went on in the European Union. Our entire involvement with the EU comprises two committees which seldom see the light of day. Plenary discussions are virtually never held on EU matters. The Taoiseach returned from Europe with a set of guarantees which we discussed for 80 minutes. The only members allowed to contribute were the party spokespersons on Europe. This is a serious matter and we need to address it. We have spent an inordinate amount of time on the development of EU institutions and if we vote for the Lisbon treaty we will put in place the final stage of this process. However, we have spent no time on reforming our own House or responding meaningfully to our participation in the EU.

In the Lisbon treaty, the EU is telling national parliaments they should play a more significant role at every level of decision making. The work programme is not proposed by the bureaucrats in the Commission. They are entitled to be involved in its drafting but so are national parliaments. We can demand that the programme includes serious issues such as transport, climate change and agriculture.

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