Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)

I congratulate all the party leaders in the House on their contribution to the campaign on the referendum on the Lisbon treaty. I also congratulate the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Minister of State and everybody who played a part in getting the message out there. The majority of the House were in favour of the proposal.

As a member of the Joint Committee on European Scrutiny, I was interested in some of the work it did. I have been a member of the committee for only a few months, since I lost my job at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. The committee has been working very hard to get the message out particularly about the relationship between the European Parliament and national parliaments. I was very interested in a report it produced that described the period prior to the first direct elections in 1979 at which time members of the European Parliament were appointed by the national parliaments. Some of the people who represented this House in the European Parliament went on to be candidates and many were elected as our first directly elected MEPs. It is a great tribute to the present committee under the chairmanship of Deputy Perry that we have debated some of these issues. While it might have been an organic relationship between national and European parliaments at the start, we now have different roles but they have the common objective of bringing the European Union closer to citizens and contributing to the democratic legitimacy of the Union.

It is well known that before 1979 a secretariat and ushers from this House were working in those parliaments, which was unique. Whatever tension there was between national parliaments and the European Parliament at the time, there is no longer any antagonism between the two sides. A very good role is now played by our own parliament. I hope it will play a greater role, particularly in the area of parliamentary scrutiny as we make progress.

It is interesting to talk about the relevance of Europe. There is a leaflet we get from the EU liaison office in Brussels outlining what will happen this week in the European Parliament. Listed are: questions with the Commission President for an hour; preparing for the European Council; reference to the new measures dealing with the dairy sector; and a debate on the budget for 2010, which is likely to call for an additional €1.5 billion to fund energy aspects of the recovery plan and an additional €300 million for the new dairy sector fund. Climate change is on the agenda. I particularly commend the Minister and his Ministers of State on their work on climate change. I also commend them on their work in developing countries and the millennium development goals.

If I am to mention one issue-----

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