Brendan Ryan (Labour)

Cuirim fáilte roimh Ms Banotti, Comhalta de Pharlaimint na hEorpa. Senator Henry talked about her Sunday morning walks. I remember being on holidays one August in the wilds of west Kerry and discovered that, in the house next door, a certain MEP was assiduously practising her Irish for a few weeks. One meets Ms Banotti in the strangest of places.

We saw Ms Banotti earlier today and I tried to remember for how long she has been an MEP. It is some compliment that, at the end of her current term in office, she will have been one for 20 years. How has she seen perspectives on Ireland evolve while she was an MEP, having regard to her comment on the huge rush to join the committee on agriculture 20 years ago? How does the average MEP regard Ireland today? I am not only interested in the Celtic tiger in this respect; I am especially interested to hear what MEPs regard as not so good about Ireland.

What elements of the European constitution are MEPs unhappy with? I am not trying to be awkward in asking this. We get such a diet from the neighbouring island, which is based on a slightly medieval view of the world, that it is much more interesting to hear what those who have totally accepted the concept of European integration regard to be the deficits.

What does Ms Banotti regard to be the remaining area or areas of the democratic deficit in the European project? This concerns us in Ireland, particularly since the shock of the first referendum on the Nice Treaty. It affects the way in which we advance the important European project and enable people to see why it matters.