Mary O'Rourke (Fianna Fail)

There were many other issues I wished to discuss but one speaks about what one knows best. I thank the Minister of State. It is good that we will have a staging post for the Lisbon Agenda. The mid-term review occurred under the Irish Presidency of the EU, which led to this. This in turn will determine what we will do for the next number of years until a further review.

The Lisbon Agenda was far-reaching, innovative and radical when it was formulated but we have all moved on and it now seems reasonably ordinary. It is worth examining what has happened to other countries. Germany lost itself in a sea of directives, half of which there was no need to be involved in. I have always been amused that countries rushed to adopt EU directives but never implemented them. I am not speaking about Germany but countries such as Spain and Greece, which stayed clear of implementing them. The Minister of State will have encountered this. We have been too eager in adopting the directives in their wildest forms.

I am not taken in by President Barroso's burning of 70 directives. I do not know whether they were old or new directives but he burned them in a macho theatrical show to state that was what he was going to do in the EU. The formulation of the directives should be thorough and painstaking. If there is no need for it, do not do it. I thank the Acting Chairman as he has been very lenient regarding my time.