The type of intimacy that we, as Irish parliamentarians, have with our electorate is almost unknown in many other countries. Within the European Parliament some Members are elected from national list systems. We may think we have a problem making our work known here but that does not matter greatly in many other countries where one's party decides one's place on the list. The party also decides if one is not on the list. The situation has often arisen where a Member who has been active in the Parliament – the reason he was elected to it in the first instance – is not put on the list the next time round because he did not spend enough time at home doing whatever was required to get him included on it.