Senator Brian Hayes asked about the powers of the European Parliament, which I have observed since being elected to it. I remember attending committee meetings where we sat around discussing at inordinate length legislation over which we had no influence – it made us feel good to do so. One would receive a list of up to 400 amendments proposing to change all sorts of minor details such as semi-colons. At the end of the process, one ended up with what I used to describe as a political string vest in that the legislation was full of holes and one did not know for what one was voting.