Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)

I thank Senator Alex White. He is correct. Deputy Costello and I had a lengthy discussion on this matter in the other House and we also exchanged correspondence. I understand the objective the Senator wishes to achieve. However, I believe when he hears the counterarguments he will probably take the same course of action as Deputy Costello did. The treaty clearly strengthens the role of national parliaments, which is one of the major benefits in the treaty. Jaime Gama, the President of the Portuguese Parliament, said the real winners in this treaty are the national parliaments, with which I agree. The new powers will promote democratic responsibility and will place a major challenge, particularly on the Houses of the Oireachtas as to how we do our business. One of the Fine Gael speakers earlier said that there is a distressing tendency in this country — as is the case in other countries — for people to blame Europe for anything we do not want to sell to the people and then to claim credit domestically for everything beneficial that Europe gives us. This will produce a much more realistic debate.

Having examined the proposed amendment, I believe that to single out the provisions relating to national parliaments could give rise to uncertainty about the status of other elements in the treaty not specifically referred to in the proposed amendment to the Constitution. I understand the Senator's point that the centrality of Parliament should be recognised. I consulted with the Attorney General particularly after receiving correspondence from Deputy Costello. It is not legally necessary to insert the change as proposed. The view is that it is much more appropriate that the mechanics and methods of how the Houses of the Oireachtas can fully engage and implement the new powers are formulated in the context of the review of the scrutiny legislation.

The Senator will recall this because his party proposed it. After the second referendum on the Nice treaty, scrutiny legislation was enacted as a result of which we moved the Oireachtas committees to a different status. It is better to insert the detail that is necessary there than to insert it into the Constitution. In the other House and in other debates I have made the point that we have appended considerable verbiage to the Constitution, which is a very fine document. People have commented how complex international treaties are. We should not make the Constitution any more complex than is necessary. For those reasons I believe the objectives the Senator and his party wish to achieve would be better achieved — as was done after the second referendum on the Nice treaty — in the context of the Oireachtas scrutiny legislation. I regret I cannot accept the amendment.