Ms Phil Prendergast, MEP:

Some of the questions are comprehensive and rather than be very specific and risk glossing over important questions, I shall respond to each Senator individually. I shall read the transcript from today's proceedings and give the Senators specific answers.

I thank Senator Leyden for his comments. A few weeks ago I was flying in one direction and he was going to another meeting in the European Parliament and it was nice to see him. As he saw from that day, there are over 7,000 people working in the building that I work in. As Senators can imagine I can only briefly go into the costs of running such an institution.

We have the dichotomy of two seats. We have the official seat in Strasbourg where we must all decamp to at great cost once a month and we have the general office in Brussels. Everybody shares the view that it is a shocking waste of money having a seat in two countries and having to return home to cater to constituencies which can make work difficult.

As for Senator Leyden's remarks on the transatlantic trade agreement when he himself held ministerial office, he is aware that at times, systems and processes can move very slowly. Since becoming a Member of the European Parliament, I have found there are frequent opportunities in which there are assessments and reassessments of what its Members are actually doing. I sat in this Chamber when the whole area of discussion on its very future, existence, role and functions came under scrutiny, as it continues to be. Having sat here in this Chamber and now being a Member of the European Parliament, I believe there is a real opportunity for a joint process in respect of the impact in countries. Senator van Turnhout raised this point in a small way about, for instance, how legislation can be transposed across borders and on how we can work and have recognition of qualifications. I touched on that issue with regard to the professional qualifications directive. There is a huge amount going on and each MEP has his or her own committees. Incidentally, there are 12 of us from the Republic and three more from the North, although the indications are that this number is soon to be reduced to 11 Members for the Republic. In this context, it is not known whether there will be a national consistency or what division will be made on the basis of the assessment of needs. However, it looks as though Ireland might lose a seat.

In any event, each Member sits on committees and those committees sometimes cross over, as they do in Ireland. For instance, on the issue of food labelling, which is of huge importance, the issue concerning the horsemeat will be much bigger then simply being an issue of labelling, mislabelling or sourcing. Consideration must be given to processing, to how our food is getting from farm to fork and to what happens in between. The scrutiny will be very wide and I am proud, as an MEP representing Munster and Ireland, that we can honestly claim we were not afraid to state we had found irregularities. It now appears as though it is more than irregularities and I refer to the ridiculous statement that it was DNA in the air, which cantered down and 29% of which happened to leap into one burger If Members will pardon the pun, I wonder what are the odds of that happening. While we have opened a can of worms, we must get to the nub of it and find out where we are going in that regard.

In response to Senator Quinn, I am very respectful of his wealth of experience and the fact he was president of EuroCommerce. I always have had huge respect for the Senator's work. I can recall that back in 1994, when I was first elected as a councillor, Senator Quinn opened a branch of his supermarket chain in Clonmel that very month. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the opening because I was on holidays. I might add it is the only holiday I have had since then, but I reiterate my huge respect for the Senator. In addition, I have been watching the Senator on television and have seen how he has been turning businesses around with his wealth of experience and how he has transposed this to effect real changes for and differences to people. The Senator had some specific questions but in respect of giving him specific and proper answers, I could only gloss over them in this Chamber. Consequently, each of his questions will be addressed in person to him in respect of the present position and status. I refer to giving the Senator a proper answer that is more comprehensive than I could possibly touch on at present.

Senator Mullins's level of briefing on his questions shows that I have been googled. I feel as though I have been googled since he knew I was coming here. I must acknowledge this level of questioning is what I had expected. As for putting forward what we do in the European Parliament and trying to get a composite of the range of work done by Members of the European Parliament, it is very difficult to give an overview of it all and sometimes one must concentrate on just a few items. In respect of the professional qualification directive, how it was enacted and what amendments we needed to put forward, because I worked in the profession as a midwife - in which capacity I was delighted to be a source of comfort to Senator Bacik - for me there was difficulty with regard to Germany seeking a period of ten years, whereas we sought a 12-year period. This was because our nurses have a status, recognition and standard we do not wish to be diluted on foot of the introduction of a professional qualification directive. Consequently, one must be very careful and always cognisant of the law of unintended consequences or the outcome of unintended consequences whereby something one has and which is held up as being a model of what is good, right and proper does not become less than that in the general sense when we seek to have it recognised across all borders. I have no fear of making the point that Irish nurses and the training thereof is recognised worldwide and I would not like to see any dilution in this regard.

In response to Senator Quinn, there is no fountain in the European Parliament foyer that I have ever seen. In respect of salaries and payments, the Senator is aware that occasionally, one gets flavours of some outlandish and outrageous payments. To give a general commentary, one must sometimes question the reasoning of those who run countries and systems. I must question, for instance, the reason that someone who potentially earns more than ¤100,000 or ¤200,000 would make a blanket statement stating that all graduate nurses should start working for 20% less from next Monday. That would be my particular bugbear and I have a difficulty about that. The people who work in Europe have a very hard and difficult job and for an MEP to work efficiently and effectively within their own committees, he or she must have staff who are highly capable, highly qualified and highly dependable in terms of preparing briefs, knowing what is the legislation, knowing procedure and process, as well as knowing when to intervene. I cannot over-emphasise the basis for good relations Members have with the secretariat, the committees and their own staff. In this context, I am accompanied today by Mr. Mario De Sa, who came from Brussels. I would like to express my thanks to Mario and I think everyone should have a Mario, as they would be so much better off.