Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)

We are going over the same ground but I restate my absolute commitment to proper legislative scrutiny in the Houses of the Oireachtas. For far too long that has not happened and we have a wonderful opportunity to use this House and the committee structure to make our contribution at a European level much more robust. I reiterate the point that it is important we do not simply go down the road of scrutinising with a view to blocking legislation in a negative sense. We should also look at the policy agenda.

The European Commission is publishing its work programme this month and it will be out within a week or ten days. Across every sector there will be an array of interesting and challenging proposals with opportunities for this House to feed into the process. I would strongly urge that this would happen. I will speak to the Whip and the Leader of the House, making known my support for that proposal, which seems to have all-party consensus in the House. It is an excellent idea and I would love to see it happen. I will engage with the issue again in the weeks and months ahead.