Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)

I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak on this Bill. At no point during the Lisbon treaty referendum campaign did anybody sit back with any sense of confidence or expectation that we would see the ratification of the treaty by Ireland. There was no sense of complacency. As a result, we saw a successful outcome of the campaign and had a much more vibrant, committed and passionate campaign than on the previous occasion. I have expressed my passion for Europe and for Ireland's place in Europe previously in the House and believe strongly that the Lisbon treaty is an essential and integral element of Ireland's continuing engagement in Europe and that it will lead to an improvement of the European institutions and how they function.

We have had ongoing and sometimes paralysing debate about institutional reform within the European Union for well over ten years now, but we now have the opportunity to move on to a bigger and more important agenda that involves key policy challenges for Ireland, France, Poland, Hungary and each of the 27 member states and beyond. The efficacy and successful functioning of the European Union has a reach far beyond the borders of the current member states.

The issues were well rehearsed during the referendum campaign, but I would like to draw attention to key areas we have the opportunity to confront now that we are armed and equipped with a newly revitalised and invigorated European structure. Let us consider, for example, the area of justice and home affairs. Much crime, particularly drug and gang related crime, is a challenge that pertains not just to a country like Ireland. Such crimes almost always have a cross-border element. For that reason, the Lisbon treaty will play an important role in bolstering and strengthening the capacity of the European institutions to respond to cross-border crime and in enabling national police forces such as the Garda Síochána to tackle and combat it. This is particularly relevant for Ireland.

Climate change is another challenge small countries such as ours cannot face on their own. Now, due to the reinvigorated structures at European level, we will be in a position to attend the Copenhagen summit in December with an agenda and in the knowledge that the European Union has a clearly defined legal capacity to tackle and move forward on the issues of climate change, global warming and CO2 emissions.

The situation is similar with regard to the economic challenges we face. No EU country has been immune from recession over the past 18 months and there has been legitimate criticism of the European Commission and the capacity of the Union to respond to the economic crisis. While the Lisbon treaty does not solve this problem, it will go some way to preparing and enabling us to deal with future challenges and to helping us move beyond the economic crisis we have seen across the Continent of Europe.

This legislation is important, but further legislation will be required to reflect not only the changes that will be brought about by the Lisbon treaty, but other decisions and outcomes such as those we have debated in the Sub-committee on the Future of Europe and its recommendations. I welcome the comments made by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Micheál Martin, before the Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Affairs this morning. He referred to some changes that must happen which will require further legislation later.

The parliamentary reform agenda is very much in people's minds this week, not least because of some of the proposals made by the Fine Gael leader over the weekend. Debate and discussion of parliamentary reform of both the Dáil and Seanad provides us with a great opportunity to consider how we can integrate a European agenda into the business of both Houses. Some of the language in this Bill seems to look more towards a fluffy, nebulous and ill-defined advisory role for our national Parliament in terms of European scrutiny and scrutiny of legislation coming from the European Commission. It does not go far enough. It is essential that we consider some form of mandate system and direct accountability to the Dáil and Seanad with regard to the position of Irish Ministers at European Council meetings and with regard to the agenda set out by Ministers. These must not just be advised, but be informed by the views and positions adopted by the Dáil and Seanad. We need to reflect on this issue and come up with a more concrete mechanism that will achieve this.

There is an extremely important need for scrutiny of legislation at EU level. We have failed in that regard so far. Ireland does not compare to other member states in terms of how we deal with directives coming from the European Commission.

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