Feargal Quinn (Independent)

I was impressed by Senator Leyden's reference to the ability of both Houses to scrutinise European legislation. In the past, we had a Joint Committee on European Scrutiny but we do not have that any more and I am not sure whether that legislation is being scrutinised. The House could well play an active part in this. The reason I raise this is comments yesterday by the British Lord Chief Justice, where he argued the case regarding European Court of Human Rights decisions. He said there was an arguable case that judges should take account of decisions from Strasbourg but not be bound by them. I do not know where we stand but the British are saying judges can take decisions into account but are not bound by them.

The EU legislation, which we support to a large extent, needs scrutiny. When that discussion took place yesterday, the Home Secretary in Britain, Theresa May, called for the scrapping of their human rights Act. It was based on one thing which was that an illegal immigrant could not be deported because he had a pet cat. Human rights legislation from Strasbourg had overridden their legislation. I hope we are in a better position than the British in this area but I am not sure because we do not have a committee to scrutinise legislation. I am not sure how well we are scrutinising legislation.

Senator Ó Murchú made a very strong statement on community efforts. There is a huge need for that. Active citizenship is alive and well in the country. What can be done by the State? State bodies can do something, without it costing money. For example, RTE has committed itself to a series of programmes starting in two weeks' time called "Local Heroes - A Town Fights Back". It selected the town of Drogheda and identified how that town can work together. It does not put money into the town but acts as a catalyst to the communities in the town to do things for themselves. It will be very interesting but it would not necessarily have happened without RTE saying it believes it has a public service broadcasting obligation to do the right thing. It is helping to start this movement in this particular town. Other State bodies could do something similar, using their own abilities.