Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)

The Minister of State made sure he came well armed to defeat my arguments on Report Stage, although I think I raise a valid point. I will be withdrawing my amendment because he made it clear that the principal Act ensures the writ does not run large in terms of implementing European legislation. We are supposed to have a significant role under the Lisbon treaty in terms of parliamentary scrutiny of directives before they are put on the Statute Book but I am not sure the system is particularly effective in practice. I am concerned that we would continue to have an input into decisions made at European level.

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