Seanad debates

Thursday, 26 June 2003

Houses of the Oireachtas Commission Bill 2002: Second Stage.

 

I would like the new commission to pay adequate attention to the resources available to the Oireachtas Library, which are important. We must bear in mind that the Oireachtas Library is close to the National Library of Ireland and Trinity College in terms of getting books. However, it is not that aspect about which I am thinking. Perhaps its contents should reflect a little more the fact that we are members of the European Union. I would like to see it subscribe to a few of the principal European publications. We need to get into the habit of looking at and studying a perspective outside the purely anglophone sphere. I have had so many experiences in the past 20 years of where our vision was limited because we only looked at what the Irish and English papers said. We can learn from different dimensions from France, Germany and other countries. I do not like the trend in recent years in relation to Europe in that we seem to have become increasingly anti-French and anti-German, for which I see little basis.

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