Mary O'Rourke (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the President of the European Parliament to the Seanad. These days we are immersed in a huge amount of European knowledge as the attendance of many of our MEPs has been an eye-opener for many of us.

We are all familiar with the terms of the Single European Act, Maastricht, Amsterdam, the first and second Nice treaty referenda and the Lisbon agenda, in particular, which sets out the social and economic pathway for the future. However, if we were to go on to Grafton Street now and stop people and ask them to list the Single European Act and all the other treaties I have mentioned to determine if they knew anything about them, they would not be able to do so.

President Cox spoke about next year being the year of renewal for Europe. It will fail if we cannot make the connection between the single citizen, be it Tom Kelly, Mary Brown or whoever, in whatever village or town in Ireland or Europe, as President Cox's brief is Europe. We must make the connection between that citizen and all the lofty ideals Europe epitomises.