Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

As we speak, Ministers do not go before every committee. When I was in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment I did not attend the relevant committee prior to attending a Council meeting. There was no great demand for the committee to have the Minister of the day before it either. It is different in the case of the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs. We are well used to that in the Department of Foreign Affairs. We go before the European Affairs committee before every foreign affairs Ministers' meetings. That is a good approach but I agree we should have a joint session or a state of the union debate here at least once every 12 months, if not more. At Government level we are bringing forward proposals and working on how the Cabinet and the administrative system can engage with Europe on a more effective and co-ordinated basis in the future because the one lesson we must learn from the first and second Lisbon referenda-----

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