Ms Ahern, MEP:

I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach for his welcome and for the opportunity to speak here. It is important that Members of the European Parliament make this link. We are Members of the Oireachtas but we are very much out on a limb in our own spaceship. Sometimes we feel only very tenuous connections with home base or even with planet Earth.

Ms Ahern, MEP:

One of my colleagues, Mary Banotti, said that she has wanted this kind of opportunity for a long time, so I thank the Leader, Senator Mary O'Rourke, for making this concrete. Such an opportunity can be useful for Senators and MEPs alike. I will concentrate today on current issues, because I am sure that is what Members will most want to hear about.

Ms Ahern, MEP:

I am a member of the EU trade and industry, energy and research committee and the culture committee. The vast amount of legislation that comes at us from Europe goes through the powerhouses of the committees, which are very important. Members of the European Parliament are expected to be well up to speed at least on the issues they directly address. It has been a challenge and a pleasure to represent the people of Leinster and Ireland in that forum and to find oneself challenged to keep abreast of the issues in a very profound and technical way, as one is. I hope and believe I have represented my constituents in that way and I believe all the Irish MEPs are very competent, although one does not hear much about that. That is one of the reasons this link with the Seanad is important.

Ms Ahern, MEP:

I know the President of the European Parliament, Pat Cox, visited the Seanad today, as did Rosemary Scallon, so it is a big European day. That tells one that the Irish EU Presidency is looming. It will be tremendously important for all of us, and we all want to see Ireland put its best foot forward, as I believe it will.