Eugene Regan (Fine Gael)

Last week I called for a debate on the possibility of Ireland's opting out of the EU criminal and policing measures provided for in the new reform treaty. It was agreed to have an urgent debate on this matter. We now know that the decision has been made by the Government. However, it is rather discourteous to this House and to the Lower House that there has been no debate on what is potentially a constitutional issue.

As Senator O'Toole said, after the original Nice referendum debacle there was much soul searching in this House and in the Oireachtas generally about what went wrong. Clearly, people were not informed about EU matters. The Minister for Foreign Affairs at the time, Deputy Brian Cowen, spoke in this House about new measures and procedures that had been put in place by the Government for greater scrutiny of EU legislation and said there would be an ongoing dialogue between the Oireachtas and the Government on this matter. This has not happened. Although we were also promised transparency, no explanation has been offered to the House as to why this opt-out has been exercised. It is of fundamental importance that this explanation is provided, even belatedly.