Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputies for the broad cross-party support for this motion. Deputy Ó Snodaigh spoke about external border security. Having been Minister for Foreign Affairs and now Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, I am acutely aware of the desire of our member state colleagues, particularly driven by Ireland, of the need to address some of the difficulties with inward illegal immigration into the broader EU. I am also aware of the desire to try to stop some of the root causes involved for people from Africa and elsewhere to migrate into Europe. An amazing effort has been made over the years by EU member states to address some of the difficulties.

The Deputy quoted Kofi Annan and he was correct in what he said. However, people like Kofi Annan are not naive enough to think that we were not only able to deal with the ills of some of the difficult situations in Africa and elsewhere without police and military co-operation. People like Kofi Annan made suggestions about the requirement whereby the EU should contribute to battle groups in order to encourage co-operation between member states. At any given time, troops from several member states could go into areas of conflict in order to bring some security and balance back to those communities. That has worked well.

The Stockholm programme was adopted by the European Council last December and it sets out an agenda for building progress in the justice and home affairs area over the next five years. One of the aspects of the Stockholm programme was to develop internal security strategy within the EU. The definition of internal security is not restricted to law enforcement, but also relates to how we can co-operate to address some of the natural and man-made disasters. Ireland is very conscious of this at EU level. The internal security refers to those disasters within the confines of the EU.

The mains tasks of COSI are to ensure operational co-operation and co-ordination, to evaluate the general direction and efficiency of the co-operation and to identify possible shortcomings and failures, and to recommend measures to address them. It has no operational or legislative role. Deputy Flanagan referred to the need to streamline working procedures within the justice and home affairs area. There is a commitment to re-organise the working groups under the Lisbon treaty, and this motion is part of that.

Deputy Rabbitte welcomed the motion. He suggested that there is a need for greater co-ordination at EU level, and this is an effort to do that. The Deputy asked why the motion was brought forward now, rather than before the Christmas recess. I understand this is due to the work of the committee and to the busy schedule of the House before Christmas. Given that the first meeting of COSI is not until 12 February, it was felt it could be left over until after Christmas.

The motion specifically provides that the European Council will keep national parliaments informed of the proceedings at committee level. It will be up to the Oireachtas committee here to inquire from time to time as to what is on the committee's agenda. This is a fulfilment of one of the commitments of the Lisbon treaty. It was often said during debates that the treaty was difficult to understand, but Article 71 is quite easy to understand. It is clear that it is a standing committee to ensure that the operation and co-operation of internal security is promoted within the EU. This motion is a fulfilment of that. It must get parliamentary scrutiny before it can finally be adopted and before the committee can meet. I thank the Members for their co-operation and understanding in passing this motion.

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