Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)

Does Senator Ryan want me to be sacked? I will go into it to this extent. When I introduced the Bill in this House, I said there would be difficulties relating to Cabinet papers. I said this, having studied the Norwegian Act, as Senator Ryan did, and having worked for the OECD in Norway. I forecast the difficulties.

My concern about good administration is sincere. There should be principles of good administration. By the way, the European Union does not have a FOI Act, although many member states do.

Senator Browne asked how I could make the European Union relevant. When I was a young boy, I was taken to the Warsaw ghetto exhibition in London by an uncle of mine where I saw the famous photograph of the little boy with his hands up coming out of the ghetto. That is how one makes the European Union relevant. For all its ills the Union has given more than 50 years of peace, serenity and progress to the peoples of western Europe. The peoples of eastern and central Europe long for this and are entitled to it. That photograph hangs in my room in Government Buildings. People to whom I spoke in connection with the holocaust day were impressed by the fact that it was there. That is the reason it is on the cover of the first Irish holocaust day booklet.

I recently had the privilege of representing this country at a Convention in Warsaw. When I was there, I took a half day off and went with a man who had gone into the ghetto as a 16-year old boy. The only thing that remains is a sewer. I went into it with the other Irish people there with me and, on behalf of every Irish person, put a wreath at the transportation point from where 350,000 men, women and children went to Treblinka. That is the reason we should be inspired about the European Union. That is its essence. We should try to create an area of greater peace and harmony in Europe. That is what inspires me.

Senator Maurice Hayes spoke of making the European Union relevant. I mentioned the barometer. The forum has done extraordinary work on which I compliment Senator Hayes. I agree with him that a strong Commission is the formula.

I remind Senator Quinn that Roche is a Norman name. The Roches built the first castles in County Wexford and set up the first rudimentary administration. I recommend to the Senator that he look at who convened the very first Irish Parliament. It was a man called Richard Roche.